The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 not only introduces a number of criminal offences with a view to controlling the “legal highs” industry but also introduces civil sanctions to disrupt it without criminal charges.
The sanctions include prohibition notices, premises notices, prohibition orders and premises orders.
Briefly these are:
a) Prohibition notice: requires a person to stop carrying out ‘prohibited activity’.
b) Premises order: requires a person to take all reasonable steps to prevent prohibited activities taken place on the relevant premises.
c) Prohibition orders: might require the subject of the order to hand over stocks of psychoactive substances and may effectively close specified premises.
d) Premises order: may effectively close specified premises.
It is important to note that the first two referred to are issued without court proceedings eg by a senior police officer, whereas the last two are court orders. There is no sanction for breaches of the first two but breaches of the second two can be punished by a prison sentence of up to two years and an unlimited fine.