Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2021 to Question 11460, if she will ask the ACMD to advise whether alcohol and tobacco should be controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971; and for what reasons her Department makes a distinction between alcohol and tobacco and controlled drugs when there is no provision in the MDA that specifically excludes legally regulated drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.

We have no plans to control alcohol or tobacco under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and no plans to commission advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) on this matter. Parliament considered arguments about their inclusion at the time of the Bill’s passage, including the reasons for the distinction between them and controlled drugs. Alcohol is regulated under the Licensing Act 2003 in England and Wales and tobacco is regulated under The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.