Banning Substances Will Not Stop Head Shops

(3 March 2010, Order of Business, Edited Version)

I compliment the Government on moving with dispatch in identifying substances sold in head shops that are proposed to be banned. While complimenting it on its speed, I wonder whether it is going far enough. In that regard, I prefer what the Labour Party has suggested in its draft planning and development Bill, namely, that we would consider changing our planning laws to require a change of use for premises and that people would have to apply for planning permission to set up these head shops. The Labour Party made a similar proposal in the past regarding sex shops and proposing to conquer these two issues at once. That is courageous but I wonder if that is going far enough.

It is not beyond the limits of human ingenuity for us to devise some piece of legislation that will allow us not just to prevent the establishment of these places in the future but will also target the ones currently in existence. The Government seems to be timid with regards to this and I do not believe it will work. If we identify a set of substances some other new set of substances will appear on the horizon and we will be eternally playing catch-up. I ask for further consideration of that and this forum might be a useful place to have the debate as to the precise mechanisms we should come up with to target not just the head shops but the people who offer home deliveries of these substances and so on.