European officials should rethink proposals to seize power from the individual countries like the United Kingdom to regulate and ban legal highs, peers have warned.
The House of Lords home affairs, health and education EU sub-committee said decisions to ban new psychoactive substances should be decided by individual states rather than at a European Union-wide level.
The move aims to help the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction as well as Europol's attempts to fight drug trafficking by establishing common definitions of legal highs across the European Union and better share information.
Committee chair Lord Hannay of Chiswick said: "We share the Commission’s concerns about the risks posed to public health by new psychoactive substances and consider that the EU has an important role to play in helping to tackle the creation, availability and use of new psychoactive substances.
“However, we do not agree that the proposed Directive and Regulation satisfy the principle of subsidiarity. They do not allow the requisite level of flexibility for Member States to respond rapidly to local situations and to make their own decisions about the threats posed by new psychoactive substances and the appropriate response.”
The Lords are set to debate a final response on Monday to the European Commission's proposals.
Speaking about the Commission's proposal in October, home office minister Norman Baker said: "It is arguably less useful to us, however, in terms of identifying, risk-assessing and banning those substances, as the UK tends to be already ahead of the curve in identifying such substances."
The Lib Dem minister told MPs that there was a risk of disputes between the EU and Britain if "they might want to control a substance which we regard as harmless or not needing to be controlled in the same way."
Yasmin Batiwala, chair of the Westminster Drug Project, told the Huffington Post UK: "It is unfeasible to make all EU Member States conform on drug regulation as different types of legal highs affect each EU state differently, and new legal highs are cropping up all the time, making rules on these easy to circumvent."
Meanwhile, a Ukip spokesman said: "It is up to the people of this country to decide if they wish to ban 'woof woof', 'miao miao' or 'bark bark' or whatever you want to call it."
Brexiters
Nigel Farage(01 of09)
Open Image ModalThe Ukip leader and MEP is the most famous 'outer'. After his party took over a 100 council seats in May's local election's Nigel Farage is hoping to win the 2014 European elections and then gain MPs in Westminster in 2015. He has confirmed he will seek a parliamentary seat himself. (credit:PA)
Lord Lawson(02 of09)
Open Image ModalMargaret Thatcher's former chancellor and a true 'Tory grandee' revealed in The Times that if and when there is a referendum "I shall be voting out". He also stuck the boot into the David Cameron by saying the prime minister's attempts to renegotiate the terms of the UK's relationship with the EU would be "inconsequential". (credit:PA)
Backbench Brexiters(03 of09)
Open Image ModalThere are quite a few Conservative MPs who would like to wave goodbye to Brussels. Ken Clarke has said the figure is as low as 30 despite the strong eurosceptic feeling on the backbenches. However the exact number is not clear. Mid-Bedforshire MP Nadine Dorries, who remains suspended from the Conservative Party, is currently talk tof the eurosceptic town amid rumours she may defect to Ukip. Other backbench Brexiters include Bill Cash, Douglas Carswell, Peter Bone and Philip Davies and former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth. (credit:PA)
Labour's 'Let's Leave' Lot(04 of09)
Open Image ModalMost of the anti-EU focus is on the Tory benches. But there are more than a handful of Labour MPs would would like to quit Brussels as well. Eurosceptics include Frank Field, Kate Hoey, Austin Mitchell, and Gisela Stuart.Stuart has argued the status quo is "not sustainable" and Britain should leave. (credit:PA)
Media Moguls(05 of09)
Open Image ModalRupert Murdoch has warned that the EU will "sink" the UK. The News International and boss caused a stir when he met Nigel Farage for dinner in London recently and said the Ukip leader was "reflecting opinion" with his anti-EU views.In November 2010 Richard Desmond’s Daily Express became the first UK newspaper actively to call for Britain to leave the EU, launching a ‘Get Britain Out’ campaign (credit:PA)
I'm A Celeb, Get Us Out Of Here(06 of09)
Open Image ModalOf course no campaign is complete without a bit of star power. The pro-EU camp have Eddie Izzard, who do the Brexiters have?Joan Collins, a 'patron' of Ukip, wants the UK to leave. "The EU, controlled from Brussels, cares only about itself," she said in March. (credit:PA)
The Business Types(07 of09)
Open Image ModalMost business leaders do indeed seem content with what Lawson called the "warm embrace of the European single market", but there are a few dissenters. Private equity guys Jon Moulton and Edmund Truell are two and Next boss and Tory peer Simon Wolfson has said: "Britain should stay in Europe, but only on the right terms". (credit:PA)
The Commentariat(08 of09)
Open Image ModalThere are a number of loud voices whinnying on the sidelines to say "neigh" to the EU notably Melanie Phillips, Richard Littlejohn, Tom Utley, Simon Heffer.Basically the Daily Mail stable. (credit:PA)
Edging Towards Exit(09 of09)
Open Image ModalSeveral high-profile politicians appear to be on the verge of calling for the UK to exit the EU - but just are not there yet.Former defence secretary Liam Fox - pictured here with a big gun - has said "life outside the EU holds no terror" should David Cameron's hopes of negotiating a new treaty fail.Education secretary Michael Gove is said to have told friends the UK has "nothing to be scared of" by leaving Europe.And many other eurosceptic cabinet ministers, including Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson are likely to share that view. (credit:PA)