Mr William Deedes: I beg to move Amendment No. 5, in page 8, line 44, at end add (j) on the recommendation of two doctors approved under section 28 of the Mental Health Act 1959 to prohibit, for a stated period, administration or supply of controlled drugs for out-patient treatment to a named person and to authorise— (a) compulsory detention either for observation or assessment for not more than 28 days(b)...
Mr William Deedes: I know that the hon. Gentleman will not exaggerate the degree of liberty enjoyed by a narcotics addict.
Mr William Deedes: With the leave of the House. May I thank my hon. Friend warmly for his very fair and capable reply to this Amendment? He talked more convincingly than most doctors on the subject. If he made that speech often enough, he would be in danger of making up minds. The House will realise that our idea was to give the subject an airing, not to push the Amendment to a Division. In my view, no...
Mr William Deedes: We have done our work on the Bill expeditiously, and, in some ways, I think it rather hard that we should be required to take the concluding stages at this hour of the morning. We are engaged on a valuable and important debate, and I think that it might have been more profitably held at some other time of day. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] That protest being made, however—I hope that it has...
Mr William Deedes: I will be very careful, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Slimming involves the use of amphetamines, and with amphetamines all sorts of funny things can happen. The Bill refers to gross over-prescribing, which we are endeavouring to prevent, particularly of amphetamines and barbiturates. It is with that in mind—and particularly the gross over-prescribing of amphetamines—that I ask my hon. Friend to...
Mr William Deedes: I shall comment later on what the hon Member for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles (Mr. David Steel) said about the Kenyan Asians, but I should like first to revert to the remarks of my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Mr. Powell). We now have three matter before us—the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill, which is a mere device by which we practise the debate; the Bill...
Mr William Deedes: The accounting system, as the hon. Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Merlyn Rees) knows as well as I do, is deficient. Unless the new Bill can provide us with a more satisfactory basis for accounting for those who are here, those who are coming and those who are going, leaving out those who may be here in the year 2,000, the Bill will be on a false basis. I accept that, as some of us on the...
Mr William Deedes: I know about the difficulties, but if, as I believe, implicit in this policy is the need for more exact accounting, the difficulties must be overcome. We cannot lie down and say that we cannot account for this. Somehow, we must. There is another difficulty which our unified proposals may offer. It is readily, I think wrongly, assumed that under a single system of control we shall have the...
Mr William Deedes: Will my right hon. Friend say what representations he has received from the Parliamentary Commissioner on this point?
Mr William Deedes: Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind before he makes his announcement that some of the difficulties to which this Act is subject can bring no joy to those who supported or opposed the original Measure? Is he aware that it is not a question of which side one is on but a matter of whether the law is working satisfactorily?
Mr William Deedes: Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind that he could make an invaluable contribution to the policy of retrenchment upon which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is now engaged by deciding not to have this tunnel at all?
Mr William Deedes: I warmly congratulate the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Hardy) on his speech. It would be impertinent of me to refer generally to the clutch of maiden speeches to which we have listened today, but I think that they have collectively injected a good deal of common sense into this subject which some of us have been discussing for some time. The hon. Gentleman will probably be gladder that...
Mr William Deedes: I accept this, but the hon. Gentleman will accept in his turn, I think, that some prescriptions are given out which are not covered by that proviso; it is those which cause me anxiety. In a sentence, a great deal of careless prescribing has gone on here, and we all know it. The conduct of many doctors in respect of dangerous drugs leaves a great deal to be desired. Following on what my right...
Mr William Deedes: Perhaps I over-stated it, and I do not want to over-state the matter. I do not want to go back on my words about the case we make not being credible. Let me put it this way. There was a time, as the hon. Gentleman will remember, when we tried to impress on the young that those who smoked cannabis were in pretty close peril of turing over to heroin, that one would follow the other. It is true...
Mr William Deedes: I think I shall be taking up the hon. and learned Gentleman's point in my next remarks. There are two misconceptions about "pot" and cannabis which ought to be cleared up. The first thing which is overlooked is the infinite variety of the potency of "pot". There is an enormously wide range in what one can smoke, and at one end of the range one gets one result and at the other end of the range...
Mr William Deedes: That is a rational argument, but we are not dealing with rational people, and the hon. and learned Gentleman knows that the same thing can be said with far greater emphasis about the effect of heroin. The first dose is often quite horrible yet those who experience heroin derive great euphoria from the result. However, the point which I want to stress is that if we increase the number of...
Mr William Deedes: Mr. Deedes rose—
Mr William Deedes: Does the hon. Gentleman accept that smoking more than a certain amount of cannabis may cause serious organic damage?
Mr William Deedes: Can the hon. Gentleman really be so satisfied? Is he not aware that, as we warned at the time, there is a serious shortfall in the administrative needs set up by this Act, and that, not only among child care officers but in other spheres, a major crisis is developing over personnel?
Mr William Deedes: The House is grateful for the exposition of the Bill which the Home Secretary has given, and particularly for his description of the scene which it is designed to meet. With almost everything the right hon. Gentleman said about it most of us will strongly agree, especially about the limits of the law, about our lack of knowledge—which I strongly endorse—and about the speed at which...