EU drug legislation - Targeting ‘legal highs’

A European Commission proposal to allow the EU withdraw dangerous designer drugs from the consumer market at short notice is to be welcomed.

The EU’s biggest users of such substances are Irish people in the 15-24 age range.

Although Ireland delivered a blow to the “legal high” trade with legislation in 2010 effectively banning head shops and prohibiting specific drugs, much of the trade across Europe has shifted online or onto the street.

Designer drugs, or legal highs, are psychoactive substances used as an alternative to illicit drugs such as cocaine or ecstasy. They are all too readily available but the problem has been that legislation only targets specific drugs.

The clever thing about this proposal is that, instead of concentrating on the chemical component of whatever new and deadly substance becomes available, sanction will be proportionate to its potential harm, empowering law enforcement agencies to nip it in the bud.