PROPOSED BAN ON LEGAL HIGHS

That this House recalls that the prohibition of drugs usually results in increased use as occurred with the prohibition of alcohol in the US; also recalls that the imposition in the UK of the harshest drugs prohibition in Europe in 1971 resulted in the increase in the total of heroin and cocaine addicts from 1,000 to 320,000; notes that the ban on legal highs in Ireland in 2010 has perversely increased their use to the highest in Europe; and regrets that the Government intends to repeat a failed remedy that will again criminalise a legal market and greatly increase police costs, drug abuse and deaths.