Home Office to rethink psychoactive drug policy, which has been described as 'panic and then permanently ban'

Ministers are considering whether to give up on banning new psychoactive drugs known as "legal highs" and instead regulate the booming trade in the substances which are emerging on the market at the rate of more than one a week.

A short review is to be undertaken by the Home Office to see if it possible to rethink the approach, which has been described as "panic and then permanently ban", although legal highs such as Benzo Fury and NBOMe were connected with 52 deaths in Britain in 2012.

Options to be considered by the four-month inquiry will include looking at the New Zealand regime of regulating the manufacture and sale of "low risk" psychoactive substances. Manufacturers pay for clinical trials of their products before they can go on sale to adults over 18.

Ministers are expected to stop short of adopting the New Zealand approach but will consider the merits of regulating rather than criminalising the new drugs. Under the existing 12-month banning orders, possession of the legal highs for personal use actually remains legal although there are draconian penalties for importing and supplying.

The announcement of the review, which is due to report next spring to pave the way for new legislation, is expected to be welcomed by drug law reform campaigners who argue that the current system of banning each substance as it appears on the market is clearly untenable.

But the idea is not the only one that will be considered – the American example of "analogue" legislation which simply automatically bans any new substance that has a similar chemical structure to an already banned drug will also be examined.

Many new legal highs are synthesised in laboratories in south-east Asia and designed to imitate the effects of existing illegal drugs including cannabis and ecstasy.

The move to fresh legislation is being driven by the new Liberal Democrat drugs minister, Norman Baker, who has been alarmed at the rapid spread of legal highs with supplies available not just over the internet but increasingly from convenience stores and petrol stations.

The review will look at how the UK's laws, and enforcement against, legal highs can be improved. Options include the expansion of legislation to ensure police and law enforcement agencies have better tailored powers. But the move is being announced on the same day that a permanent ban comes into effect on two 'legal highs' currently under temporary banning orders, NBOMe and Benzo Fury, which will become class A and class B substances respectively.

Baker, the crime prevention minister, said: "The coalition government is determined to clamp down on the reckless trade in so-called legal highs, which has tragically already claimed the lives of far too many young people in our country."

"Despite being marketed as legal alternatives to banned drugs, users cannot be sure of what they contain and the impact they will have on their health. Nor can they even be sure that they are legal.

"Our review will consider how current legislation can be better tailored to enable the police and law enforcement officers to combat this dangerous trade and ensure those involved in breaking the law are brought to justice."

The review follows an international study of the drug laws initiated by Baker's predecessor as the Liberal Democrat drugs minister, Jeremy Browne, which is due to report in the new year.

The terms of reference of the review will "identify legislative options for enhancing the government's response; consider the opportunities and risks of any new ideas identified, informed by international and other evidence; and make a clear recommendation for an effective and sustainable UK-wide legislative response to new psychoactive substances".

The review is to be accompanied by new guidance to local authorities on enforcing trading standards legislation against shops selling the new psychoactive substances.

Danny Kushlick, of the drug campaign Transform, said they were delighted an evidence-based review was to take place: "Finally sense is prevailing as the prohibition based-system succumbs to the overwhelming deluge of new powerfully psychoactive drugs of literally infinite variety. The authorities are left chasing shadows, as the prohibition itself acts as the catalyst to develop new drugs, with each new chemical variation filling the vacuum created by the ban on the last drug to appear on the market."

He said the New Zealand example of a legal regulatory regime of less dangerous products needed to be explored: "It is to the great credit of the Home Office that it is prepared to look beyond prohibition, and toward alternatives that will provide basic health and safety for otherwise vulnerable users," said Kushlick.

