I just want to explore the point in Amendments 4 and 6 that, because there is only a single market that incorporates all the controlled drugs under the 1971 Act and psychoactive substances, post-legislative scrutiny will not make any sense unless it looks at the overall impact of this Bill. For example, what we can expect to happen is that if you ban synthetic cannabis, people will move straight over to the cannabis controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. If you ban a substitute for cocaine, people will move straight back to the natural cocaine, if you like, that is controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. In order to assess the impact of the Bill, it will be essential to look at the overall consumption of illegal, banned drugs and the deaths from those drugs. The deaths may move across from one type of drug to another, as would the harms and so forth. It is essential that the Government begin to look at this as a single, illicit market for banned substances. Does the noble Baroness agree that, therefore, post-legislative scrutiny has to look right across the piece?
Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL]
Proceeding contribution from
Baroness Meacher
(Crossbench)
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 23 June 2015.
It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL)
and
Debate on bills on Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL].
About this proceeding contribution
Reference
762 c1527 Session
2015-16Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamberSubjects
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2020-04-28 14:07:13 +0100
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