THE family of Christopher Scott have welcomed support from the Prime Minister in their campaign to ban legal high AMT.
David Cameron supported calls for the synthetic drug, alpha-methyltriptamine, to be outlawed during Prime Minister’s Question Time in Parliament yesterday.
Cameron was responding to a question from South Swindon MP, Robert Buckland, who asked whether the PM would do anything to see the drug outlawed after the death of 23-year-old Chris Scott.
The father-of-three from Parks died from multiple organ failure last July after trying the little green pill marked with a US dollar sign.
In Parliament, Mr Buckland said: “Last year, one of my constituents, 23-year-old Christopher Scott, died as a result of taking the so-called legal high AMT—alpha-methyltryptamine. Will my right honourable Friend support my calls and those of the coroner and Christopher’s family to ensure that this dangerous drug and others like it are outlawed?”
Mr Cameron said more needed to be done to get dangerous substances off on the market.
He said: “Let me offer my condolences to the family. With the rules that we have, hundreds of legal highs have already been banned. Our temporary drug orders allow us to outlaw substances within days of them coming on the market.
“However, we are not complacent and we have asked the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs to renew our definitions of controlled drugs to ensure that we capture these newly emerging substances when there is evidence of harm.
“There is more work to be done here, but my right honourable Friend the Home Secretary is absolutely on it.”
Following Chris’ death last year his family started a campaign to raise awareness of the effects of the drug in an attempt to prevent further tragedies happening.
Last month they heard a Government review would take place into the industry following an increasing number of deaths.
Christopher’s father, Mike 48, said: “It’s about time. I know they have to go through processes but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
“We were told a review was going to be going on and we weren’t going to hear anything until the spring, so anything that happens before that can only save more lives.”
Robert Buckland said: “I was encouraged to hear that the Prime Minister is supporting our calls to get AMT banned. “The Government has already made it easier and quicker to get so-called ‘legal highs’ outlawed, with several hundred drugs criminalised as a result of drug banning orders. “I warmly welcome their new review into the process. “We need to make sure that as wide a range of of these dangerous drugs as possible can be banned.”
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