Street Maryan: Psychoactive Substances Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Psychoactive Substances Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 09 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9147. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour): I am pleased to take a shared call on this bill the Psychoactive Substances Bill this afternoon. First of all I would like to note that legislation in this area is notoriously difficult to get right and I commend the Minister of Health for the efforts he has made in this bill to modernise a system of legislation and regulation around harmful substances—in this case psychoactive substances.I would also like to put on record a tribute to my colleague Iain Lees-Galloway who has been assiduous about this issue in particular since he came into this House and who when he held other portfolios has been outspoken and prompt in his wish for greater protection of people particularly young people from harmful substances. I commend him for that and thank him for his contribution which could be highlighted by a media statement he made almost exactly this time last year. On 30 March 2012 I think Iain Lees-Galloway put out a media statement exactly on this issue and called for a more comprehensive approach to the Misuse of Drugs Act.In the event what we have got is an interim measure. We had interim measures introduced in 2011. We supported those in lieu of a comprehensive review of the Misuse of Drugs Act. Those interim provisions were rolled over in 2012 and they are about to expire again. So again in lieu of or for want of a comprehensive review of the Misuse of Drugs Act Labour will be supporting this bill. We would rather have this and I accept the Minister’s efforts in this regard that the comprehensive review may in fact be something separate.However in the Law Commission’s report that the previous Labour Government called for in 2007 the commission’s recommendations in its final report recommended criteria against which psychoactive substances could be assessed. These are first the nature of the harms and the benefit of the product; second whether the harms can be effectively managed through regulation; three likely consequences of regulation compared to prohibition; and four potential displacement issues.I hope the Health Committee of which I am no longer a member takes those criteria from the Law Commission’s report and measures the bill up against them. I am sure that that is what the Minister has intended to have happen and I hope that because this bill’s primary objective is to render ineligible for legal sale the products that cause common adverse reactions impact on a user’s health and may cause societal problems such as aggression that the bill will be suitably scrutinised and measured against those recommendations and against its own objective.Young people think that psychoactive drugs are safe because they are unregulated because they are available for sale in shops. They know when things are illegal. Theyknow when there is an impending punishment for taking something that is illegal. They know when they cannot buy something and they know when they are committing a crime when they do. But these unregulated psychoactive drugs or previously unregulated psychoactive drugs are readily available and they morph and transform with every new generation of chemical expertise that the peddlers engage in. So they tend to think that if they can buy it it is safe. Nothing could be further from the truth. I commend this bill to the House and the Labour Party will be supporting it.