Advisory Council On The Misuse Of Drugs
Details
In December 2016 the Misuse of Drugs Act and Regulations were amended to include a generic definition for third generation synthetic cannabinoids. This amendment, however, inadvertently also controlled a large number of compounds that had no psychoactivity, and thus are not SCRA compounds.
In 2017 the then Policing Minister wrote to the ACMD asking the Council to review the barriers to research caused by the inadvertent control of non-SCRA compounds. The ACMD made some initial advice in late 2017 that included potential short- and long-term solutions. In January 2019 the short-term advice was accepted but the long-term suggestions were all deemed unfeasible.
After reviewing the situation further with a call for evidence, consideration of international approaches, and additional representations from the research community this advice was formulated to make other long-term options available.
Government response
Government response to the part 1 report and commission of part 2 work.