EU Legal High Laws Will Not Be Adopted By UK Say Ministers | HuffPost

Ministers Opt Out Of EU Legal High Plans

The Huffington Post UK/PA

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Ministers have refused to sign the UK up to European legislation for tackling legal highs.

European Commission proposals for a regulation and directive on new psychoactive substances, which are otherwise known as legal highs, would restrict the UK's ability to control the drugs, crime prevention minister Norman Baker MP said.

Baker said the Government also disputes EU evidence, which estimates 20% of legal highs have a "legitimate use".

Customers outside a legal high shop

A review of legal highs was launched last month by Baker, who joined the Home Office in the last reshuffle, which will consider widening legislation to boost police and law enforcement agencies' powers.

Last month the Home Affairs Select Committee criticised the government and police ailing to get to grips with an "epidemic" of so-called legal highs.

It recommended an over-haul of legislation to tackle the issue.

The decision to opt out of the EC proposals also comes as Britain's relationship with Europe becomes increasingly fraught.

A group of 95 Conservative backbenchers have signed a letter calling for Parliament to be able to block any aspect of European Union legislation, while a fierce debate over EU migrant access to UK benefits and jobs rages on.

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Legalising Cannabis 'Would Save Britain Millions'

Story continues after the slideshow...

The Most Successful People To Have Used Drugs

Barack Obama(01 of42)

President Barack Obama has admitted to smoking marijuana and using cocaine during his high school and college days. "When I was a kid, I inhaled often," he once told magazine editors, according to The New York Times. "That was the point." (credit:AP)

Steve Jobs(02 of42)

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' use of LSD in his younger days is well-documented. He once called the experience "one of the most important things in my life." His use of the drug was even noted in an FBI background check, according to Wired. (credit:AP)

Bill Clinton(03 of42)

President Bill Clinton famously admitted to trying marijuana while completing his Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. "When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it," The New York Times reported in 1992. "I didn’t inhale it, and never tried it again.” (credit:AP)

Richard Branson(04 of42)

Virgin Group chairman and founder Richard Branson is an outspoken advocate of marijuana legilization, once writing an op-ed for CNN that called for an end to the war on drugs. He reportedly asked President Obama during a White House visit if he could "have a spliff" in 2012. "They didn't have any," he added. (credit:AP)

Michael Bloomberg(05 of42)

New York City Mayor and Bloomberg L.P. founder Michael Bloomberg found himself in hot water when he admitted to smoking marijuana back in 2002, The New York Times reports. When asked by a reporter if he had ever tried pot, he responded: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." (credit:Getty Images)

Hugh Hefner(06 of42)

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner credits his use of marijuana later in life with changing his perspective on sex. "I didn't know what making love was all about for all those years," Hefner who supports legalization is quoted as saying in High In America: The True Story Behind NORML. "Smoking helped put me in touch with the realm of the senses." (credit:Getty Images)

George Soros(07 of42)

Billionaire investor George Soros is a known supporter of marijuana legalization and even wrote a 2010 Wall Street Journal op-ed rather straight-forwardly entitled "Why I Support Legal Marijuana." His use of the drug may be far less proflific, however. He told Reuters in 1997 that while he had "enjoyed" trying marijuana, "it did not become a habit and I have not tasted it in many years." (credit:Getty Images)

Jimmy Cayne(08 of42)

Jimmy Cayne, former CEO of Bear Stearns, kept an antacid bottle full of cocaine in his desk, according to the book The Sellout. (credit:AP)

Sarah Palin(09 of42)

The former vice presidential candidate and reality TV star told Anchorage Daily News back in 2006 that she couldn't "claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled,” CBS News reports. (credit:AP)

Bill Gates(10 of42)

Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft, hinted at once using LSD and marijuana in a 1994 interview with Playboy. Likewise, biographer Stephen Manes wrote that "Gates was certainly not unusual there [around drugs]. Marijuana was the pharmaceutical of choice…” (credit:Getty Images)

Larry Kudlow(11 of42)

Former Ronald Reagan economic adviser and current CNBC host Larry Kudlow is reported to have both smoked marijuana and used cocaine frequently at periods in his life. After being fired from Bear Sterns in the mid-1990s, Kudlow entered a rehabilitation program to deal with his cocaine addiction, according to New York Magazine. (credit:AP)

Naomi Campbell(12 of42)

Super model Naomi Campbell admitted in 2005 to abusing cocaine during her career. "I have admitted using illegal drugs and some years ago I recognised that I had a problem" she was quoted as saying in The Daily Mail. "I knew that it was wrong and had damaged me and I decided to try and sort myself out." (credit:Getty Images)

Peter Lewis(13 of42)

Peter Lewis, former CEO of Progressive Insurance, has both smoked marijuana and lobbied heavily for its legalization. After smoking weed recreationally in his youth, he started using it medicinally after his leg was amputated. “I was very glad I had marijuana," he told Boston Magazine. "It didn’t exactly eliminate the pain, but it made the pain tolerable — and it let me avoid those heavy-duty narcotic pain relievers that leave you incapacitated.” (credit:AP)

Arnold Schwarzenegger(14 of42)

Former California Governor and all around legend Arnold Schwarzenegger can be seen smoking marijuana in the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron." He later said that he "did smoke a joint and I did inhale," CBS News reports. (credit:Getty Images)

Bernie Madoff(15 of42)

In a 2009 lawsuit, it was alleged that Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff frequently sent messengers to buy cocaine for "himself and the company." Actually, before Madoff's $60 billion Ponzi scheme fell apart, his office was known as "the North Pole" because of the allegedly excessive cocaine use during work hours, according to CNN. (credit:AP)

Aldous Huxley(16 of42)

Essayist and author Aldous Huxley is said to have experimented with hallucinogenics, even writing an account of his use of mescaline in "The Doors Of Perception." (credit:Alamy)

Al Gore(17 of42)

Former Vice President and climate change activist Al Gore is rumored to have smoked marijuana often in college. However, Gore characterized his marijuana use as "infrequent and rare," according to The Guardian. (credit:AP)

Maya Angelou(18 of42)

Best-selling author Maya Angelou reportedly "settled into a job as a waitress and began smoking marijuana with abandon" early in her life, according to a biography by Harold Bloom and Cindy Dyson. (credit:Alamy)

Ted Turner(19 of42)

CNN founder and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner is rumored to have grown pot in his college dorm room, according to COED Magazine (he's reportedly also a major donor to the Kentucky Hemp Museum). After banning cigarette smoking at CNN in the early '90s, a memo emerged that claimed it "was common knowledge that Turner sits in his office and smokes marijuana." (credit:Getty Images)

Clarence Thomas(20 of42)

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas smoked marijuana "several times" in college, White House spokesman Judy Smith said back in 1991. (credit:AP)

Kary Mullis(21 of42)

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis credited much of his success to his use of LSD, according to Wired. (credit:WikiMedia:)

Next: Celebrities Who Have Used Drugs(22 of42)

Angelina Jolie(23 of42)

"I have done just about every drug possible: cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and, my favorite, heroin."[The Mirror, 1996] (credit:Getty Images)

George Clooney(24 of42)

"I didn't live my life in the right way for politics, you know. I fucked too many chicks and did too many drugs, and that's the truth. That's gonna be my campaign slogan: 'I drank the bong water.'"[Newsweek, 2011] (credit:Getty Images)

Whoopi Goldberg(25 of42)

On smoking a joint to calm herself before winning her 1991 Oscar for "Ghost": "Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits. And so I thought, 'I've got to relax.' So I smoked this wonderful joint that was the last of my homegrown. And honey, when [Denzel Washington] said my name and I popped up, I thought, 'Oh, fuck.'" (credit:Getty Images)

Sienna Miller(26 of42)

"I mean, I still love a waterfall or the odd hallucinogenic drug. I liked mushrooms, which were legal until a year or so ago. If I had a drug of choice, it would be magic mushrooms."[The Guardian, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)

Megan Fox(27 of42)

"I’ve done drugs, and that’s how I know I don’t like them. Cocaine is back with a vengeance. Everyone in every club is doing drugs. A lot of people are on prescription drugs. Celebrities aren’t trying to hide it, except where people have camera phones. ... I wanted to try several things and make an informed decision, but I didn’t enjoy anything other than marijuana. I don’t even think of it as a drug -- it should be legalized. I know about five people who aren’t on drugs today, and I’m one of them."[Maxim, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)

Joel Madden(28 of42)

“Without cigarettes, I would be doing heroin, probably, on a daily basis.”[Blender, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)

Oprah Winfrey(29 of42)

On doing cocaine with her boyfriend in the '70s while working as an anchorwoman in Nashville: "I did your drug. This is probably one of the hardest things I have ever said. ... I had a perfect, round, little Afro, I went to church on Sunday and I went to Wednesday prayer meetings when I could ... and I did drugs." ["The Oprah Winfrey Show," 1995] (credit:Getty Images)

Anthony Kiedis(30 of42)

"I spent most of my life looking for the quick fix and the deep kick. I shot drugs under freeway off-ramps with Mexican gangbangers and in thousand-dollar-a-day hotel suites. Now I sip vitamin-infused water and seek out wild, as opposed to farm-raised, salmon."["Scar Tissue," published 2005] (credit:Getty Images)

Drew Barrymore(31 of42)

"When I was 10 ½, I was sitting in a room with a group of young adults who were smoking pot. I wanted to try some, and they said, 'Sure. Isn't it cute, a little girl getting stoned?' Eventually that got boring, and my addict mind told me, 'Well, if smoking pot is cute, it'll also be cute to get the heavier stuff like cocaine.' It was gradual. What I did kept getting worse and worse, and I didn't care what anybody else thought."[People, 1989] (credit:Getty Images)

Nicole Richie(32 of42)

"I kind of took matters into my own hands and was creating drama in a very dangerous way. I think I was just bored, and I had seen everything. Especially when you're young, you just want more. ... At 18 I had just been doing a lot of cocaine."[People, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)

George Michael(33 of42)

"[Marijuana] keeps me sane and happy. I could write without it if I was sane and happy. ... This is the only kind of drug I ever thought worth taking."[ITV's "South Bank Show," 2008] (credit:PA)

Morgan Freeman(34 of42)

"Never give up the ganja."[The Guardian, 2003] (credit:PA)

Kirsten Dunst(35 of42)

"I've never been a major smoker, but I think America's view on weed is ridiculous. I mean, are you kidding me? If everyone smoked weed, the world would be a better place."[The Daily Mail, 2007] (credit:jpistudios.com)

Elton John(36 of42)

"I was consumed by cocaine, booze and who knows what else. I apparently never got the memo that the Me generation had ended."["Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS," published 2012] (credit:jpistudios.com)

Frances McDormand(37 of42)

“I’m a recreational pot-smoker. ... There has never been enough of a distinction between marijuana and other drugs. In the classic, weird hygiene movies from high school, everything led to depravity -- marijuana, sex, coffee! There was no distinction made between the effects of one thing. So it’s always been lumped in with drugs in general. It’s a human rights issue, a censorship issue and a choice issue."[High Times, 2003] (credit:Getty Images)

Dennis Quaid(38 of42)

“Cocaine was even in the budgets of movies, thinly disguised. It was petty cash, you know? It was supplied, basically, on movie sets because everyone was doing it. People would make deals. Instead of having a cocktail, you’d have a line."[Newsweek, 2011] (credit:jpistudios.com)

Nicolas Cage(39 of42)

"I had a bag of mushrooms in my refrigerator. My cat used to sneak into the refrigerator and eat them. ... He ate them voraciously; it was like catnip to him. So I thought, 'What the heck, I better do it with him.' I remember lying on my bed for hours and Lewis was on the desk across my bed for hours, and we just stared at each other -- not moving, just staring at each other, and I had no doubt that he was my brother. But having said that, I don't do that anymore. And you know what? Later in life, when I was completely not doing any of that, I know he said 'Hi' to me." ["Late Show With David Letterman," 2010] (credit:Getty Images)

Johnny Depp(40 of42)

"I don't trust anyone who hasn't been self-destructive in some way. Who hasn't gone through some sort of bout of self-loathing. You've got to bang yourself around a bit to know yourself."[GQ, 2011] (credit:jpistudios.com)

Frank Ocean(41 of42)

"hi guys, i smoke pot. ok guys, bye."[Twitter, 2013] (credit:Getty Images)

Fergie(42 of42)

“I got into a scene. I started going out and taking ecstasy. From ecstasy, it went to crystal meth. With any drugs, everything is great at the beginning, and then slowly your life starts to spiral down. [I was] 90 pounds at one point.”["Oprah's Next Chapter," 2012] (credit:jpistudios.com)

In a statement to parliament, Baker said: "The Coalition Government has decided to opt out of the European Commission's proposals for a regulation and a directive on new psychoactive substances.

"The proposals would, as drafted, fetter the UK's discretion to control different new psychoactive substances, binding the UK to an EU system which would take insufficient account of our national circumstances."

He went on: "We also strongly dispute the evidence base stated in the EU Commission's impact assessment which estimates that 20% of new psychoactive substances have a legitimate use."

Baker said the British Government would remain involved in European Union negotiations to shape the proposals.

Ten ''legal highs'' were identified last year for the first time in the UK by a specialist Government system that targets music festivals and tobacco shops.

A total of 27 new psychoactive substances, also known as legal highs, have now been detected by the Home Office's Forensic Early Warning System since it was set up in January 2011.

Baker added: "The UK is ahead of most other countries in combating the reckless trade in so-called 'legal highs', which has tragically already claimed the lives of far too many young people.

"These proposals would unfortunately hinder rather than help our ability to control psychoactive substances by slowing down action to ban harmful substances when identified.

"We have already banned hundreds of these drugs and our Forensic Early Warning System allows us to closely monitor their availability so we can disrupt their supply.

"But we are not complacent. I have commissioned an expert-led review to look into how our current arrangements can be better tailored to help protect public health and tighten further the supply of such substances."

Official figures also show that the number of deaths being linked to legal highs soared by 80% last year to 52, from 29 in 2011.

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