Possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply it
Supplying or offering to supply a controlled drug (even where no charge is made for the drug)
Allowing premises you occupy or manage to be used unlawfully for the purpose of producing or supplying controlled drugs
The act establishes the Home Secretary as the principal authority in a drug licensing system. Therefore, for example, various opiates are available legally as prescription-only medicines, and cannabis (hemp)[6] may be grown under licence for 'industrial purposes'. The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 (SI 2001/3998),[7] created under the 1971 Act, are about licensing of production, possession and supply of substances classified under the act.
The act creates three classes of controlled substances, A, B, and C, and ranges of penalties for illegal or unlicensed possession and possession with intent to supply are graded differently within each class. The lists of substances within each class can be amended by Order in Council, so the Home Secretary can list new drugs and upgrade, downgrade or delist previously controlled drugs with less of the bureaucracy and delay associated with passing an act through both Houses of Parliament.
Critics of the act such as David Nutt say that its classification is not based on how harmful or addictive the substances are, and that it is unscientific to omit substances like tobacco and alcohol.
These drugs are known in the UK as controlled drug, because this is the term by which the act itself refers to them. In more general terms, however, many of these drugs are also controlled by the Medicines Act 1968, there are many other drugs which are controlled by the Medicines Act but not by the Misuse of Drugs Act, and some other drugs (alcohol, for example) are controlled by other laws.
The act sets out four separate categories: Class A, Class B, Class C and temporary class drugs. Substances may be removed and added to different parts of the schedule by statutory instrument, provided a report of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has been commissioned and has reached a conclusion, although the Secretary of State is not bound by the council's findings.
In reality the potential harm has little bearing on the class,[9] which has led to dissatisfaction with drug laws.[10]
Substances may be removed and added to different parts of the schedule by statutory instrument, provided a report of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has been commissioned and has reached a conclusion, although the Secretary of State is not bound by the council's findings. This list has in practice been modified a great number of times, sometimes removing substances, but more commonly adding some; for example, many benzodiazepines became Class C drugs in 1985, and many cathinones became Class B drugs in 2010.
Strongest known opioid; 10,000 times more potent than morphine, 100 times more potent than fentanyl. Used as a tranquilliser for large game (elephants etc.).
Commonly used in the production of Pethidine, although it has little opioid activity in its own right
N.B. Sub-paragraphs (b) and (c) were added in 1977[18], sub-paragraphs (d) and (e) were added in 1986. Sub-paragraph (ba) was subsequently added in 2001.[19]
(b) any compound structurally derived from tryptamine or from a ring-hydroxy tryptamine by modification.
(d) compounds structurally derived from fentanyl by certain modifications.
(e) compounds structurally derived from pethidine by certain modifications.
(ea) any compound with a maximum molecular mass of 500 atomic mass units and structurally derived from 2-(2-benzyl-benzimidazol-1-yl)ethanamine.
(f) any compound structurally derived from mescaline, 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxy-α-methylphenethylamine, 2,5-dimethoxy-α,4-dimethylphenethylamine, N-hydroxytenamphetamine (N-hydroxy-MDA), or a compound specified in sub-paragraph (ba) or (c) above, by substitution at the nitrogen atom of the amino group with a benzyl substituent, whether or not substituted in the phenyl ring of the benzyl group to any extent.
legal without prescription in quantities of up to 12.8mg per dosage unit or 15mg/5ml in oral solution and only in combination with other drug. UK Codeine law
downgraded from class A to class C in 2004[22] and upgraded to class B in 2009[23] (Legalised for medicinal use in July 2018, and law excludes cannabidiol entirely)
Used by Doctors on Air Ambulance duties to provide pain relief for serious or life-threatening injuries in extreme circumstances, when casualty sedation is required prior to a potential RSI.
(d)[29] 1-Phenylcyclohexylamine or compounds structurally derived from 1-phenylcyclohexylamine or 2-amino-2-phenylcyclohexanone by certain modifications (that are not already class A substances).
(e) Any compound structurally derived from 1-benzofuran, 2,3-dihydro-1-benzofuran, 1H-indole, indoline, 1H-indene, or indane by certain modifications.
The act contains several references to "derivatives" of compounds but the extent of this term is not fully clarified. Where unspecified it is thought to indicate derivatives which can be made from the specified compound in a single synthetic step, although such a definition would indicate that alkyllysergamide analogues would be uncontrolled. Where the derivatives are specified to be "structural derivatives" there is precedent that the statute applies whenever the structure could be converted to the specified derivatives in any number of synthetic steps.[38]
Penalties
The penalties for drug offences depend on the class of drug involved. These penalties are enforced against those who do not have a valid prescription or licence to possess the drug in question. Thus, it is not illegal for someone to possess heroin, a Class A drug, so long as it was administered to them legally (by prescription).
Class A drugs attract the highest penalty, and imprisonment is both "proper and expedient".[39] The maximum penalties possible are as follows:[40]
The act makes it a crime to assist in, incite, or induce, the commission of an offence, outside the UK, against another nation's corresponding law on drugs. A corresponding law is defined as another country's law "providing for the control and regulation in that country of the production, supply, use, export and import of drugs and other substances in accordance with the provisions of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs" or another drug control treaty to which the UK and the other country are parties. An example might be lending money to a United States drug dealer for the purpose of violating that country's Controlled Substances Act.
Before 1971, the UK had a relatively liberal drugs policy and it was not until United Nations influence had been brought to bear that controlling incidental drug activities was employed to effectively criminalise drugs use. It is noted that bar the smoking of opium and cannabis; Section 8, part d, under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 was not an offence (relating to the prosecution of the owner of a premises/building inside of which controlled drugs were being used). Section 8 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971[42] was amended by Regulation 13 of Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1985 (SI 1985/2066)[43] and Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.[44] These amendments were however repealed in 2005 by Schedule 1 (part 6) of the Drugs Act 2005,.[45][46]
The Current Section 8 covers: people knowingly allowing premises they own, manage, or have responsibility for, to be used by any other person for:
Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse, David Nutt, Leslie A. King, William Saulsbury, Colin Blakemore, The Lancet, 24 March 2007, said the act is "not fit for purpose" and "the exclusion of alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary."[49][50]
The Transform Drug Policy Foundation offers rational criticism of the harms caused by the Government's current prohibitionist drug policy.[51] The Drug Equality Alliance (DEA) has launched legal actions against the UK Government's partial and unequal administration of the Act's discretionary powers, making particular reference to the arbitrary exclusion of alcohol and tobacco on the subjective grounds of historical and cultural precedents contrary to the Act's policy and objects.[52]
In February 2009 the UK government was accused by its most senior expert drugs adviser Professor David Nutt of making a political decisions with regard to drug classification in rejecting the scientific advice to downgrade ecstasy from a class A drug. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) report on ecstasy, based on a 12-month study of 4,000 academic papers, concluded that it is nowhere near as dangerous as other class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine, and should be downgraded to class B. The advice was not followed.[53] Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary, was also widely criticised by the scientific community for bullying Professor David Nutt into apologising for his comments that, in the course of a normal year, more people died from falling off horses than died from taking ecstasy.[54] Professor Nutt was later sacked by Alan Johnson (Jacqui Smith's successor as Home Secretary); Johnson saying "It is important that the government's messages on drugs are clear and as an advisor you do nothing to undermine public understanding of them. I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy and have therefore lost confidence in your ability to advise me as Chair of the ACMD."[55][56]
In May 2011, a report named Taking Drugs Seriously was released by Demos. It discusses several issues with the current system, since its enactment in 1971. It states that the constant presence of new drugs will make it difficult for the government to keep up with the latest situation - over 600 drugs are now classified under the act. Comparison levels of harm previously demonstrated by David Nutt show that alcohol and tobacco were among the most lethal, while some class A drugs, such as MDMA, LSD, and magic mushrooms, were among the least harmful.[57]
Use of controlled substances for research
A common misunderstanding amongst researchers is that most national laws (including the Misuse for Drugs Act) allows the use of small amounts of a controlled substance for non-clinical / non-in vivo research without licences. A typical use case might be having a few milligrams or microlitres of a controlled substance within larger chemical collections (often tens of thousands of chemicals) for in vitro screening. Researchers often believe that there is some form of "research exemption" for such small amounts. This incorrect view may be further re-enforced by R&D chemical suppliers often stating and asking scientists to confirm that anything bought is for research use only.
A further misconception is that the Misuse of Drugs Act simply lists a few hundred substances (e.g. MDMA, Fentanyl, Amphetamine, etc.) and compliance can be achieved via checking a CAS number, chemical name or similar identifier. However, the reality is that in most cases all ethers, esters, salts and stereo isomers are also controlled and it is impossible to simply list all of these. The act contains several "generic statements" or "chemical space" laws, which aim to control all chemicals similar to the "named" substance, these provide detailed descriptions similar to Markushes, a good example of a few of these are found in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (amendment) order 2013.[58]
Due to this complexity in legislation the identification of controlled chemicals in research is often carried out computationally, either by in house systems maintained a company's sample logistics department or by the use commercial software solutions.[59] Automated systems are often required as many research operations can often have chemical collections running into 10Ks of molecules at the 1–5mg scale, which are likely to include controlled substances, especially within medicinal chemistry research, even if the core research of the company is not narcotic or psychotropic drugs.[60] These may not have been controlled when created, but they have subsequently been declared controlled, or fall within chemical space close to known controlled substances.
There are no specific research exemptions in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. However, the associated Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 (SI 2001/3998)[61] does exempt products containing less than 1mg of a controlled substance (1μg for lysergide and derivatives) so long as a number of requirements are met, including that it cannot be recovered by readily applicable means, does not pose a risk to human health and is not meant for administration to a human or animal.
Although this does at first seem to allow research use, in most circumstances the sample, by definition, is "recoverable" - in order to prepare it for use the sample is "recovered" into an assay buffer or solvent such as DMSO or water. In 2017 the Home Office also confirmed that the 1mg limit applies to the total of all preparations across the entire container in the case of sample microtitre plates.[62] Given this, most companies and researchers choose not to rely on this exemption.
However according to Home Office licensing, "University research departments generally do not require licences to possess and supply drugs in schedules 2, 3, 4 part I, 4 part II and schedule 5, but they do require licences to produce any of those drugs and to produce, possess and/or supply drugs in schedule 1".[63]
↑ Plants containing mescaline not illegal, only an extract of the substance.
References
This article incorporates text published under the British OpenGovernmentLicencev3.0: To maintain the accuracy of the article, some of the text is copied directly from the legislation.
↑ Nutt, David (1 April 2010). "Trashing evidence-based drugs policy". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2012. We will give the public the kind of high-quality evidence on drug harms our current crop of politicians apparently do not feel they need before making far reaching decisions around drugs classification.
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