Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL]

My Lords, my noble friend and I have Amendments 20, 21, 47 and 48 in this group. First, I welcome...

My Lords, we should be grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Norton, and to the noble Baroness for dra...

My Lords, as we are in Committee, I would like to ask the Minister a question which I told the Bi...

My Lords, I make a very short intervention simply to support this group of amendments ably moved ...

My Lords, I will make just a brief point on the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady...

We very much support the points that have been made by the noble Lord, Lord Norton, and the Const...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth for introducing this amendment. P...

I listened carefully to what the Minister said about the Government's consultation with the Advis...

I think I have tried to deal with that important point. Effectively, it is a discussion about whi...

My Lords, it is appropriate to mention that, as well as the two committees to which the Minister ...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister. I shall look forward to further discussi...

Moved by

Lord Paddick

23: After Clause 3, insert the following new Clause—

“Pos...

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 24. These amendments are tabled in my name and that of ...

My Lords, we will return to the subject of decriminalising possession of all drugs a little later...

My Lords, as someone from the highlands of Scotland, I like to be cool as well, but I suspect tha...

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, and the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, I too have bee...

My Lords, it is important that in this Bill, it is not proposed that there should be a criminal o...

My Lords, I apologise to the Committee: I did not speak at Second Reading, but I would like to ma...

With the leave of the House, I follow the Lord, Lord Brooke, in apologising for not having taken ...

My Lords, the Opposition are not minded to support Amendment 23. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Pad...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, for introducing the debate on this amendment and ...

Will the Minister help us just a little bit further, because I know the Home Office knows a good ...

I did not mean to be dismissive about that. The Drugs: International Comparators report, which wa...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who contributed to this debate and wish, if I may, to address a...

Moved by

Baroness Meacher

25: Schedule 1, page 34, line 7, leave out paragraph 2 and ...

My Lords, I will also speak to Amendments 26 and 27. I am very grateful to Rudi Fortson QC for ad...

My Lords, we have Amendment 28 in this group. The noble Baroness has covered the issues very thor...

My Lords, very briefly, I would endorse every word that the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, said an...

My Lords, we also have an amendment in this group, Amendment 49, providing for regulations under ...

My Lords, I believe that the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and the noble Lords, Lord Paddick and ...

My Lords, is there an issue around veterinary medicine as well as human medicine? I do not know t...

Veterinary medicines are not for human consumption, so they do not fall within the scope of the B...

My concern is that research in that area should not be impeded.

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her response, which was very positive. I was particul...

Moved by

Lord Norton of Louth

29: Schedule 1, page 34, leave out lines 25 to 29

My Lords, my amendment would remove alcohol from the list of exempted substances in Schedule 1. T...

My Lords, I point out that if Amendment 29 is agreed, I shall not be able to call Amendment 30 by...

My Lords, had I spoken at Second Reading I would have supported the Government’s aims of trying t...

My Lords, I could never hope to give my noble friend an intellectual answer as to why all alcohol...

My Lords, I want to make a brief but important point. In responding to the noble Lord, Lord Norto...

My Lords, I want to make a quick point because the subject of alcohol has been introduced into th...

My Lords, for the avoidance of doubt, it is not the policy of the Labour Party to ban alcohol. I ...

Oh, that I could get away with that, although I can say that it is not the policy of Her Majesty’...

In many cultures, cannabis has had exactly the same status and is a good deal less dangerous.

That is true. I see my officials in the box becoming terribly nervous, as I am jousting way out o...

I would be grateful if the Minister will respond to the points that I made about Palcohol, which ...

The noble Lord is right. We will go back and look again at those Written Answers. We are alert to...

My Lords, I am grateful to everyone who has spoken. It has been a useful discussion for getting c...

Moved by

Baroness Hamwee

30: Schedule 1, page 34, line 29, after “any” insert “other”...

My Lords, I will speak also to Amendments 31, 32, 33 and 34. In view of the debate on the previou...

My Lords, the “other” must be implied and I see no reason why it should not be expressed. I think...

My Lords, I do not like having a law which states as a fact something which is clearly wrong. I h...

When my noble friend comes to do that, perhaps she will help me with the problem that I have got....

My Lords, I understand that these are probing amendments which seek an explanation of some of the...

My Lords, the Official Report will not record the facial expressions around the Chamber in respon...

Moved by

Lord Paddick

35: Clause 4, page 2, line 22, leave out “suspects” and insert ...

My Lords, I shall also speak to Amendments 36 to 38, tabled in my name and that of my noble frien...

My Lords, the short answer to the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, and to get to the heart of it, is tha...

My Lords, I thought that that was a superb explanation but I want to tax the Minister, if I might...

My noble friend is correct in the sense that there are rules that exist relating to solvent abuse...

I thank the Minister for his explanation, on the basis that I am not a lawyer. I beg leave to wit...

Moved by

Lord Howarth of Newport

39: After Clause 5, insert the following new Clause—...

My Lords, this amendment proposes that the possession for personal use of any psychoactive substa...

My Lords, I rise to support Amendment 39 and to speak to Amendments 45 and 52, which are in my na...

My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, said, we have had the debate on decriminalisation alre...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, for introducing this amendment. The amendments in...

My Lords, the groupings were perhaps not quite right, at least as far as Amendment 39 is concerne...

That is one of the reasons why the Republic of Ireland Government are pleased that we are followi...

Before the noble Lord withdraws his amendment, can I just say that surely there must be a way to ...

We can, but the whole purpose of the legislation is to try to close the loopholes. As I explained...

The noble Lord has provided us with some helpful information. I am still left puzzled as to how h...

Moved by

Lord Rosser

40: Clause 6, page 3, line 16, leave out “or B” and insert “, B ...

My Lords, a succession of inspection reports, covering Highpoint, Bristol, Liverpool and Deerbolt...

My Lords, in following the commendably concise remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, I wish to ...

My Lords, my colleague the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Bristol is very sorry that he can...

I must say to my noble friend the Minister that I have considerable sympathy with the amendments ...

My Lords, I support both sets of amendments, on prisons and vulnerable children. It strikes me th...

My Lords, Clause 6, I believe, replicates almost exactly the provision in the Misuse of Drugs Act...

My Lords, these are two very important areas—prisons and children—and I am grateful to the noble ...

The bad guys know where the children’s homes are, even though they may not be marked on the map o...

Of course, and I remind my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern that, within the sen...

I hope I can say on behalf of the Bishops’ Bench that the offer of a meeting is welcome. If we ca...

My Lords, if the correct way of dealing with subsection (6) is just to refer to the delivery of a...

Before I respond on what I am doing with the amendment—I shall be withdrawing it; I do not want t...

As one would expect, the justice department will have been consulted and was part of the discussi...

Before the noble Lord says what he wants to do about his amendment, does not the fact that certai...

My Lords, I support the aggravated category for prisons and the particularly vulnerable children ...

In response to those two points, I think I am right in saying that where we came from on this was...

The Minister said that he would reflect particularly on the point about children. Is he saying th...

I am always learning that the problem with legislation is when you mention one factor and have no...

We would like to know where we stand before Report, because if we are drawing a blank, it is some...

Moved by

Lord Bates

43: Clause 6, page 3, line 32, leave out “psychoactive”

Moved by

Lord Paddick

51: Before Clause 11, insert the following new Clause—

“L...

My Lords, Amendment 51 stands in my name and the names of my noble friend Lady Hamwee and the nob...

My Lords, I support this amendment. I think it is going to be very difficult in practice to imple...

I rise briefly in response to a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, when he mentioned tha...

As the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, said, the amendment would introduce a system of licensing to sel...

I shall take that last point first. From time to time, new and very dangerous chemical compounds ...

The Minister will tell me if I am wrong, but I am very much getting the impression that the Gover...

Well, I have given a couple of examples of things that may have been included by mistake. We know...

Whatever policies are introduced on head shops—whether a wholesale ban, a crackdown, some degree ...

I respect the noble Lord in taking that position but it is a different position from that which t...

I thank the Minister and other noble Lords for their contributions. The noble Lord, Lord Howarth ...

There have also been difficulties because of objections to testing on animals.

I accept that testing anything on animals is another very contentious issue. However, it is not r...