Party Vibe

@Requiem 599825 wrote:

I really don’t think there’s any mad rush mate, this law is gonna take a ridiculous amount of work to even draft if and then I’m unsure how well it will go for them in the commons and lords.

one info source is quoting a timescale of April 2016 (just less than a year) which is possible although there is no official assesment on how long it will take.

In any case a delay in this law being passed would not stop the ACMD temp banning substances on a TCDO or local authorities imposing their own controls in their regions if any more problems come to light from binge use (which unfortunately could be an unintended consequence of folk realising that the “clock is ticking” for the NPS).

the 80+ page set of notes that ACMD, NCA, Home Office and DH worked together on?

Will have to check that again although it is an accurate assesment of timescales if compared with all other similar changes to UK legislation; and might even be a “canary” let out by Whitehall so folk can monitor the progress of debate and check that this is not being short circuited in any way (I’m not sure if that would actually be possible; shortening the timescale may be but would involve pushing other legislation to the back burner.

to be fair I’ve noticed that recent legislation from ACMD (basically everything since 2005 that wasn’t already controlled such as ketamine and the cathinones) has actually been based on verifiable evidence of harm caused to users and societies; unlike previous drugs laws where stuff like MDMA was class A even before it appeared in
Britain.

The Whitehall departments themselves give the distinct impression they aren’t even too keen on the current elected government; not least because they are not immediately being given the resources in healthcare and policing to cope with any fallout from this legislation and that could arrive in many different ways, not just a rise in OD’s/problematic use amongst a niche community.

About 30 years ago Thatchos lot decided to clamp down on a load of hippies who were camped out in random bits of the countryside and who were caning a shit ton of drugs and selling some; but mostly within their own communities as the bulk of them were living in the middle of nowhere.

At the time (1985) there was hardly any drugs being used by teenagers in SE England. the cops did not have reliable communications equipment nor proper resources or training on how to deal with this; so used a very large amount of physical force and property damage against the hippies to try and permanently disrupt their lifestyle.

Of course that didn’t work; it only temporarily dispersed them. the hippies were not left feeling there was no hope or future for them and many got further into drugs use and dealing. Of course their own teenage and young adult kids wanted to fight back against society; many of them upped sticks to smaller communities based around traveller sites and squats in SE England and sold drugs to those teens a few years younger than them, especially the kids in the more affluent suburban housing estates!

By 1987/1988 my area of SE England was full of all sorts of drugs – not that my generation was complaining but it caused about 2 decades of carnage and is to some extent why the UK is still in the mess it is today. At least some of Whitehall don’t want to repeat history; whether the govt or those who elect them will listen is another matter.