Drugs - a bad news story and loop holes

A small town on the east coast of England, better known for containing a profanity within its name, recently became famous for something even more sinister. Scunthorpe was seen to be on the front line of a campaign against 'deadly legal highs.' In March, Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith were reported to have taken the then loop-hole drug Mephedrone.

The 'legal' part of the description of Mephedrone has always been misleading. More accurate would be to describe them as 'loop-hole' highs. But this would take some explaining, whereas most commentators are more comfortable with the moniker 'so-called legal highs.' Which, you have to agree has the advantage of communicating the commentators self righteous disgust on the subject of drugs.

Be that as it may, there is also something Orwellian in the terms used about the War on Drugs. One of them, 'control' automatically springs to mind. Mephedrone is said to have become a 'controlled' drug, as of the 16th April, because it is now illegal. Though the Home Secretary and the chair of the ACMD are unable to explain how they, as our representatives, now have control of this drug, rather than criminal gangs that now sell Mephedrone.

All of this ignores that the drug, marketed as a plant food with properties close to Ecstasy if consumed by humans, was never really legal. And here our 'loop-hole' comes in handy. The producers and distributors had found a loop-hole in the Medicines Act 1968. Slap on a label 'not for human consumption' and hey presto - you now have a 'high' which allows you to trade the substance over the counter.

All of which means - we and our government, did not ever have 'control' of Mephedrone. More regulations were required to sell and produce a tin of baked beans than Mephedrone. Or indeed, a packet of cigarettes or a bottle of wine.

Politically it was all too easy for our politicians to just simply make the drug illegal, and claim they now 'controlled' the drug, because its possession and supply is now a criminal offence.

Good politics, but bad, bad policy.

At the time of writing, results of the toxicology tests of Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith have not been published. Over a month after there deaths, we still do not know what killed them.