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The Government may have just banned everything

 

Christopher Hooton
Thursday 28 May 2015 12:30 BST
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The Government's fear that someone might take a drug and have a nice time is only getting worse, judging by an upcoming bill that implies that anything and everything that has any effect on you whatsoever will be made illegal.

It's not written in law yet, but the tease in the Queen's Speech doesn't sound too gorgeous (emphasis my own):

"The Bill would make it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, import or export psychoactive substances; that is, any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect. The maximum sentence would be seven years' imprisonment."

As politics.co.uk points out, you could argue that your mum's cooking is a psychoactive substance if it gives you a feeling of happiness. The same could be said for a calming cup of tea.

OK, so obviously the bill won't get that silly, but this does highlight how confused and capricious the Government's approach to drugs is.

Bear in mind that weed has been found to be 114 less deadly than alcohol, then consider this major contradiction in the bill:

In the US, Obama said that we need to "follow the science not the ideology" with regards to drugs, which we're definitely not in the UK.

As other countries reap the financial rewards of weed legalisation with little to no impact on crime, legalising or even decriminalising the drug still seems far off this side of the Atlantic.

While many still consider marijuana a gateway drug, recent data shows that if anything, its fellow psychoactive substance alcohol is.

@christophhooton

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