Drug laws and licensing
Drugs Act 2005
The new act brings about new police powers to test for class A drugs and more
Aims of Drugs Act
- Increase the effectiveness of the Drug Interventions Programme by getting more offenders into treatment.
- Introduce a new civil order that will run alongside anti-social behaviour orders for adults to tackle drug related anti-social behaviour.
- Enhance police and court powers against drug offenders.
- Clarify existing legislation in respect of magic mushrooms.
Content of Drugs Act
- Test drug offenders on arrest, rather than on charge.
- Require a person with a positive test to undergo an assessment by a drugs worker.
- Provide for an intervention order to be attached to ASBOs issued to adults whose anti-social behaviour is drug related, requiring them to attend drug counselling.
- Allow a court to remand in police custody for up to a further 192 hours those who swallow drugs in secure packages, to increase the likelihood of the evidence being recovered.
- Allow a court or jury to draw adverse inference where a person refuses without good cause to consent to an intimate body search, x-ray or ultrasound scan.
- Create a new presumption of intent to supply where a defendant is found to be in possession of a certain quantity of controlled drugs.
- Require courts to take account of aggravating factors - such as dealing near a school - when sentencing.
- Amend the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 to give police the power to enter premises, such as a crack house, to issue a closure notice.
- Amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, making fungi containing the drugs Psilocin or Psilocybin (-magic mushroom') a class A drug.
- Repeal section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.
