Word: legalizes
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...long had an answer to cutting off the supply of legal highs: a blanket law that bans not just one particular drug but any drug that resembles it. The Analogue Drug Act of 1986 automatically outlaws any drug "substantially similar" to an illegal drug in either composition or effect. The U.K. is moving closer to the U.S. model, but instead of a blanket ban, the government is crafting several smaller laws to cover whole families of drugs. Cannabinoids will join marijuana as a Class B drug, which will mean fines or up to five years in prison for possession...
...Britain's war on legal highs started in May with talk of a ban on Spice. The Chinese smoking blend is generally described as herbal, but tests carried out in German labs have shown that its herbal mix is sprayed with designer chemicals that mimic the effects of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, but to a more potent effect. France, Germany and Austria have recently outlawed the sale of Spice, and the U.K. now plans to ban not just that specific cannabis substitute but all synthetic cannabinoids - a class of designer drugs structurally resembling cannabis - hoping to nip offshoots...
...stimulant also known as 1-benzylpiperazine. The E.U. announced last year that all member states should ban BZP by March 2009 (lagging five years behind the U.S.). Like Britain, several other E.U. states still haven't complied, but already BZP "alternatives" are being advertised all over legal-high-vendor websites. It's unknown what exactly is in these BZP imitators, but if they're related to piperazines, manufacturers will have to find another alternative, as these too will fall under the new British ban. (Read: "Pot: Now Starring in Your Favorite Movie...
...designer drugs, U.K. lawmakers will have to walk a fine line between trying to stay one step ahead of manufacturers and classifying drugs too hastily, especially those that haven't yet been proved to be harmful to users. Once drugs are classified, they rarely get downgraded or returned to legal status, says Barnes, owing more to political than scientific will. "Legislation is a blunt instrument," he says. "If we go down the route where we simply outlaw on the basis of potential harm, the heavy weight of the law might not always be a pragmatic response...
...with recent headlines showing that some legal highs are far from harmless, most in Britain are likely to support the new ban. Earlier this year, BZP was linked to the death of a 22-year-old British man who had reportedly also taken ecstasy. GBL, which is used legitimately as an industrial cleaning agent but is touted as a substitute for the outlawed date-rape drug GHB, has also garnered attention in the U.K. for its role in the death of a 21-year-old woman whose mother has crusaded to outlaw the chemical. "The key message to get across...