Fight against drugs: turn 'legal highs' quickly into illegal drugs

EPP Group welcomes law proposal by European Commissioner Reding to fight new designer drugs

"Traditional instruments for the fight against drugs are becoming less and less effective. Since new designer drugs are continuing to crop up, we must we able to ban them quickly. Commissioner Reding's proposal is absolutely right and must be enacted as soon as possible", said Hubert Pirker MEP, EPP Group Member of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. New psychoactive substances are often being sold legally on the internet as cleaning agents, plant food, bath salts, or research chemicals.

Until now, it has taken up to two years from the emergence of new designer drugs until their legal ban because the respective law has to be amended. "It is intolerable that about 300 drug substances are being sold legally by online stores and we can do nothing about it. Member States can't do anything because a national ban can be circumvented by buying from an online store in another country. The EU can't do anything because a lengthy change to EU law can be side-stepped by slightly changing the composition of the drug", Pirker explained.

Today's law proposal provides for a graduated reaction mechanism. In case of an immediate risk, a temporary ban can be introduced within weeks. Permanent measures such as restricting the sale to consumers or even use in industry and the criminalisation of the substance, can be introduced within ten months. "Drugs are a cash machine for organised crime. This is why we must we able to ban newly-mixed drugs swiftly and non-bureaucratically. I call on the Left in this Parliament not to hamper the adoption of the new law. To get stuck now in endless discussions on negligibility would be to endanger our young generation", Pirker concluded.