So how's that Psychoactive Substances Act doing then?

It came into force on May 26 last year, since when it has been a criminal offence to produce, supply, import or export any “psychoactive substance;” or to possess such a substance in a prison. The penalty for supplying is a sentence of up to 7 years, and for possession in a prison it is one of two years imprisonment.

A year ago, many of us had a good laugh over whether the Act's extraordinary definition of “psychoactive” – something that by “stimulating or depressing [a] person's central nervous system ... affects the person's mental functioning or emotional state” – would criminalise florists and nutmeg sellers.

We marvelled at the unprincipled contortions through which the Government decided that the law would continue to allow the sale of poppers to respectable people like Crispin Blunt MP (the risible answer is that although they stimulate the central nervous system they do not do so “directly”). We pointed out that lawmakers were ignoring the evidence of a very similar law in Ireland, which had demonstrably failed to control the problem and possibly made it worse, and we hoped for the best that, contrary to all known previous experience, the criminalisation of another class of drugs would lead to a reduction in the harm that they do.