Mr Teare MHK said he had taken the decision to bring forward legislation to deal specifically with the escalating problem of mephedrone abuse.

And he said he would reviewing ways to make it quicker to criminalise other substances.

Certain substances that fall into the category of legal highs will become controlled substances as of December 23 under arrangements by which the DHSS was required to keep legislation in this area in line with that of the UK.

But this does not included mephedrone, which is currently being considered for inclusion by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in the UK.

There are currently no powers in Manx law to ban controlled substances without them first being listed as such in the UK, but the Health Minister said the Isle of Man would now take its own 'short, sharp' action.

Mr Teare said: 'We will be bringing forwards legislation to deal specifically with mephedrone. If someone who thinks that mephedrone is purely recreational with no downsides whatsoever saw some of the patients who present themselves at Noble's A&E they would have a completely different point of view.'

Mr Teare said that in the 'fullness of time' he would be reviewing other primary legislation with a view to taking an order to Tynwald creating a list of controlled substances to which new drugs could be added when necessary.

'This would give us the means to proscribe a drug much more quickly,' he said.

Home Affairs Minister Adrian Earnshaw told Tynwald last week that a high-level cross-department strategic group had been set up to look at the legality, use of and supply of mephedrone, which he described as a 'complex matter'.

Mr Earnshaw did not rule out criminalisation of mephedrone but described the situation as a 'moving target', by which no sooner had one substance been outlawed than another with a slightly different chemical formula would come along to replace it.

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Letter to parents warns of dangers

PARENTS and carers of secondary school children are to receive a letter warning about the current threat posed by legal highs.

The letter, which was posted to parents from Friday, explains that mephedrone and other substances known as 'herbal highs' can be easily obtained over the internet or bought locally.

Home Affairs member Bill Malarkey MHK said the issue of the availability of legal highs was being taken very seriously by government.

He said: 'However, I feel it's important that parents of secondary school children should be fully aware of what is available to their children, and I hope my letter will serve to encourage parents to play their part in educating their children to refuse any drugs that are offered to them, whether they are legal substances or any other drugs'.

He emphasised that 'we all have a role to play in this'. In the letter Mr Malarkey adds that the government was looking at ways to prevent these substances being sold but 'unfortunately as fast as you make one substance illegal, it is replaced by another product almost immediately'.

He adds: 'This is an ongoing challenge for government'.

He concludes his letter with contact numbers and websites by which parents can obtain more information about legal highs, including the Department of Education's drug and alcohol liaison officer on 693837 and DASH on 615622, or the Drug and Alcohol Team on 617899.

The letter to parents follows a recent announcement by pub and club licensees that anyone who was found in possession of legal highs on their premises would face an Island-wide ban from their establishments.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Send your comments to newsviews@newsiom.co.im

YOUR COMMENTS

needs to be banned ASAP. I hate to think how many people take it and are addicted!!! so cheap and easy to get people were taking for a long weekend then found they were addicted. NASTY NASTY Drug. just hope there will be enough drug workers to hlp all those that need help.
WORRIED ANON

The minister and Bill Malarkey are very wise to "take this very seriously". Bill's spot on.....as soon as one of these dangerous substances which provide a legal high is banned, another comes along. Presumably we can expect all pubs and off-licences to be closed immediately? Bill Hicks would have a field day...
JC

Would it not be easier to legalise all drugs, and simply regulate them like we do with alcohol and cigarettes? Firstly what ever happened to personal choice? What right do we have to tell people what they can and can not do to themselves? And secondly, making something illegal only makes it more alluring to the rebellious people of our society.
JOHN, Douglas

I used to live with a girl on this so called LEGAL drug, she turned into a mess and she now has no friends. This is seriously addictive and now she is out of control along with the other addicts, has been sacked from a really good job with the reason being 'drug addiction' This drug is obviously addictive and some people say it has similar effects to cocaine?.. So when they cant get this easily will they go on other stuff? Its stupid, i just dont understand why people feel the need to take this to have a good time?
ANON

Any substance in the world is dangerous if you do it all the time. The problem here is that a few people who have come to the attention of the authorities because of their self destructive nature have given the impression that we're dealing with a pandemic of drug addiction. How many people turn up at Nobles with alcohol problems or related injuries? If you drunk vodka everyday you'd soon get the sack, loose your mind and flush your life down the toilet - but this very obvious notion is missing from the self deluded old fools who run this island. Prohibition has never worked and will never work. If you're serious about making drugs safer then educate people. If you make this drug illegal the chemists will simply change the compound slightly and by pass the legislation.
SL

Why don't the Police and Goverment Drug team simply ask the shop to stop selling this drug? As a service to the community, could they refuse? Also, why don't we stop publisising the drug like this, the more people hear about it the more people will want to try it.
JWK.

I agree that it should be illegal and its good to see the IOM government pushing to create their own legislation rather than blindly following the UK. Will this set a precedent to allow the government to make their own decisions regarding other so called illegal substances......cannabis for example..... Perhaps the IOM government could actually read the recommendations from the ACMD and make steps to decriminalise cannabis rather than blindly following the UK...and upgrading it to a Class B Drug. I think that for a so called independent govenrnment, blindly following UK policy is a farce and undermines the very fabric of the Island, after all, our democratic parliament was around long before the UK managed to organise themsleves and we just follow them blindly without question.
RINGO

Minister Eddie Teare is correct in either banning or crininalising mephedrone which should not be called a Legal High but which should be described for what it is being a Agricultural Solvent. However he is abusing his position and lying to the public by claiming that all Herbal Highs are bad and should be banned most are simply caffeine based stimulants and are proven to cause no harm. Over 50 million Herbal Highs have been sold in the last 10 years without one single case of anyone being severely affected (other than when Herbal High has been mixed with other illegal drugs and alcohol) eg. excessive drug/alcohol abuse. In the same 10 year period thousands of people have died as a direct result of alcohol dependence and abuse, thousands of people every year die horrible deaths from smoking which include brain damage, heart attacks & strokes 60 people a day die in the UK from alcohol abuse and this does not include people who are murdered or killed in accidents where alcohol played a role. Herbal Highs hae been on sale for over 10 years without issue but now because of an internet based Agricultural Solvent being abused by some local idiots we are going to lose more choice how we choose to spend our social lives, if we are to ban these products we should also ban Alcohol & Cigarettes just because they are currently legal does not mean they have the right to stay legal they are proven killers using them simply in the way they have been designed to be used without even having to abuse them.
GEORGE

George, You cannot pick and choose what constitutes a legal high and what doesn't. For your information a lot more than just Methadrone are sold as plant food - in fact most if not all legal highs are sold on this basis so that they can get around legislation on human consumption. Others are sold as bath salts etc. Prohibition has never and will never work. People have been getting 'high/drunk/stoned' for thousands of years and that is not going to change. And for the same amount of time humans have been abusing such substances. There will always be addicts of every substance - whether it be alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, methadrone or hamburgers. Banning this substance will have no effect whatsoever other than driving it underground and into the hands of criminals, who will cut it and sell it on to the same individuals.
A grown up approach would be research and educating people so that they can make a grown up choice for themselves. But this would require vision and acceptance that the world is changing - something very few are willing to accept.
ANON