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Feedback: A mind-bending law looms

17 June 2015

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

(Image: Paul McDevitt)

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

A mind-bending law looms

RECREATIONAL drugs have strange effects on people, most notably those trying to ban them. The UK government intends to outlaw “legal highs”, the synthetic analogues designed to sidestep existing prohibition. Feedback has studied the text of the Psychoactive Substances Bill, and noted many others wondering if the document was itself written under the influence. It bans “any substance which is capable of producing a psychoactive effect in a person who consumes it, and is not an exempted…

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