People in Gedling borough are being reminded that“legal highs” will be banned from tomorrow as the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 comes into force.
The act will make it an offence to produce, supply offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, import or export psychoactive substances or any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect.
The maximum sentence will be seven years’ imprisonment.
Nottingham County Council’s Trading Standards, Community Safety and Public Health teams today welcomed the new legislation which they say will tackle the scourge of ‘new drugs’.
A psychoactive substance is defined in the new law as a drug which is capable of affecting a person’s mental functioning or emotional state, but is not currently controlled as a Class A, B or C drug.
Councillor Glynn Gilfoyle, Committee Chairman for Community Safety at Nottinghamshire County Council said: “These new drugs can kill and there have been cases elsewhere in the UK where people have died. In many cases, new psychoactive substances are also packaged with a warning saying ‘not for human consumption’.
“If someone was presented with a decaying slice of meat with maggots in it, that would not be fit for human consumption – so why do people take the risk with these new drugs when they don’t know what chemicals are in them and what effect it will have on them both short term and long term?”
The new Act warns people that sharing drugs with friends means you are putting them at risk and danger and the changes in the law mean you could face legal consequences for giving or selling any new drugs to anyone.
In 2015 Nottinghamshire County Council’s Trading Standards team seized more than 900 packs of untested drugs with names including ‘Go-Caine’, ‘Herbal Haze’ and ‘Atomic Bomb’.
