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Mephedrone is a controlled drug

The government announced that it is has banned mephedrone and related cathinones under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

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Harmful ‘legal highs’ banned

Several chemicals used on herbal smoking products and other so called ‘legal highs’, have been made illegal. (December 2009).

The list includes the chemical solvent GBL. Some of the substances have similar effects to stimulants or depressant illegal drugs.

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What are the UK Drug Laws?

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971

This act is intended to prevent the non-medical use of certain drugs. For this reason it controls not just medicinal drugs (which will also be in the Medicines Act) but also drugs with no current medical uses. Offences under this Act overwhelmingly involve the general public, and even when the same drug and a similar offence are involved, penalties are far tougher. Drugs subject to this Act are known as 'controlled' drugs. The law defines a series of offences, including unlawful supply, intent to supply, import or export (all these are collectively known as 'trafficking' offences), and unlawful production. The main difference from the Medicines Act is that the Misuse of Drugs Act also prohibits unlawful possession. To enforce this law the police have the special powers to stop, detain and search people on 'reasonable suspicion' that they are in possession of a controlled drug.

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Thursday, 02 September 2010