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Poppers 'will remain legal' despite ban on legal highs
A review by the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs has found that akyl nitrates are 'not psychoactive' under the terms of the new Psychoactive Substances Act
Poppers, the colloquial name for alkyl nitrites, will not be banned under the new Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, according to the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs.
Last month the government asked the ACMD to advise on the harms and psychoactivity of alkyl nitrites, whose muscle relaxing effects are widely used to facilitate anal sex, particularly among gay men.
Council chair Professor Les Iversen has now written to Home Office minister Karen Bradley with an analysis determining that poppers are not psychoactive in the context of the Act.
"The ACMD’s consensus view is that a psychoactive substance has a direct action on the brain and that substances having peripheral effects, such as those caused by alkyl nitrites, do not directly stimulate or depress the central nervous system," the review said.
Critics of the Psychoactive Substances Act, through which MPs sought to outlaw legal highs, had claimed that a ban on poppers would discriminates against gay men.
The government had indicated it would consider removing poppers from the list of banned substances at a later date - but the ACMD's advice would appear to make such an exemption redundant.
"In the ACMD’s view," the report said, "alkyl nitrites do not fall within the scope of the current definition of a 'psychoactive substance' in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. Consequently, the ACMD does not see a need for an exemption."
Labour's Andy Burnham wrote to the Home Secretary in January saying: "I remain concerned that your ... position (to ban poppers pending further investigation) may well cause harm, particularly amongst the gay community.
"A ban on poppers, even if temporary, may result in poppers being sold ‘under the counter’, and users being driven underground to purchase poppers and thereby being exposed to new, more dangerous substances.
"It could also result in individuals facing prosecution and possible imprisonment. A temporary ban will cause widespread confusion amongst users about their legality, as well as having potentially serious and life changing consequences for individuals who continue to use them during the ban.
"I believe it would be better to have temporary exemption for poppers as opposed to a temporary ban whilst we await the conclusions and recommendations of the review."