PHA welcomes Home Office plans on legal highs

PHA welcomes Home Office plans on legal highs

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has called repeatedly for legislation which will allow new legal highs to be banned immediately.

While the Government has acted to ban specific synthetic drugs once the risks of taking them become known, it has always been our concern that the producers of these drugs will manufacture alternative ones to get around the law.

The agency has consistently argued that the process of having to find evidence of risk as each new drug emerged before it could be banned that there was always a time delay between a drug becoming available, and it being made illegal. This put people’s health, and lives, at risk.

Therefore the PHA is pleased that the Home Office has now confirmed plans to give Ministers the power to ban new drugs for a year until they have been properly assessed.