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The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the emergence of substituted cathinones or M-cat drugs (notably mephedrone and methylone) and their rapid proliferation of use, amongst drug users in the UK from 2009 onwards, signals changes in the habits, preferences and lifestyle choices made by certain drug users, whilst also indicating a pronounced increase in the levels of co-morbid mental health conditions experienced by another, yet often distinct, group of users.

This latter group of users, it is suggested, tend to initiate use of psychoactive substances (including tobacco and alcohol) at a younger age. In addition, it is suggested, they often present to treatment and criminal justice services with a history of chronic childhood relational trauma, as a background against which severe patterns of drug abuse has evolved. In this light the lack of significant supplies of social capital, as a protective factor against the development of chronic drug use, is further considered in the paper that follows though a brief literature review and qualitative clinical case reports.

Novel psychoactive substances ( Newcombe, 2013) appear so seductive, for a certain group of users, because they seem to provide a temporary form of cognitive and emotional anaesthesia, enabling users to self-medicate, often against experiences of profound psychological trauma and contemporary lives that are typically experienced as boring, hopeless and pointless. The euphoric effects of psycho-stimulants such as mephedrone are particularly appealing to individuals attempting to escape a subjective sense of daily dysphoria and may on this basis lead to, rather than recreational use, more persistent patterns of drug use. However, in contradistinction to this group of users, another recreational – mainly weekend leisure – group of users continues to evidence a voracious appetite for psycho-stimulant substances.

It is suggested that this second group of users has been particularly influential in substitute displacement towards the emergence of legal highs, due to the poor quality and illegal status of street drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine sulphate and MDMA (ecstasy).

The last two years have witnessed what may justly be described as a revolutionary change in the packaging and marketing of goods, of which pre‐packed food constitutes a substantial part, but as far as public reaction goes, it has largely been a silent witness. There has been none of the outcry such as accompanied metrication, sufficient to call a halt to the process, and especially to the introduction of the decimal currency, of which most shoppers are convinced they were misled, “conned”. Every effort to make the changeover as smooth as possible was made; included was the setting up within the Department of Trade of a National Metrological Co‐ordinating Unit charged with co‐ordinating the work of 91 local weights and measures authorities in Great Britain in enforcing the new law, the Weights and Measures Act, 1979. This Act replaced the net or minimum system of the old law, the traditional system, re‐enacted in the Weights and Measures Act, 1963 with the average system, implementing EEC Directives and bringing weights and measures into line with Member‐states of the European Community.

Things seem to be going desperately wrong with the concept of the “brave new world” predicted by the starry‐eyed optimists after the Second World War finally came to an end. To those who listen only to what they want to hear, see everything, not as it is, but as they would like it to be, a new society could be initiated and the lusty infant would emerge as a paragon for all the world to follow. The new society in truth never really got off the ground the biggest mistake of all was to cushion millions of people against the results of their own folly; to shelter them from the blasts of the ensuing economic climate. The sheltered ones were not necessarily the ordinary mass of people; many in fact were the victims and suffered the consequences. And now that the state has reached a massive crescendo, many are suffering profoundly. The big nationalised industries and vast services, such as the national health service, education, where losses in the case of the first are met by Government millions, requests to trim the extravagant spending is akin to sacrilege in the latter, have removed such terms as thrift, careful spending, value for money from the vocabulary.

Another Christmas month is upon us, following it seems quickly on others that have been. Such is the relativity of Time, it is not yesteryear, but could be yester‐month or even yester‐week. The seasons pass like youth, all too soon. Our minds return to other Christmas months of yore — “Memories are like Christmas roses!”, the old saying goes. The children, singing much‐loved hymns and carols, happy family settings, a birth, christening, so much to look forward to in the new year. There are not always such happy memories, but memories just the same — Christmas in war‐time, Earth's joys growing dimmer each year, change and decay, life drawing to a close for many a soul; old folk tend to see Christmas as a time of passing, of leaving the world behind.

In preparing this report, the compliance sub‐group has set out to (a) summarise the current compliance regime as a matter of law and practice, (b) identify particular problem areas within that regime concerning public sector officials (PSOs), and (c) suggest recommendations for change. The result may be seen as providing features of a ‘model’ compliance structure designed to cause difficulties for corrupt PSOs seeking to launder the proceeds of their corruption; UK law and practice has formed the springboard for the model, but it should be stressed that in order to be of any utility any suggested changes would have to be adopted (effectively) universally throughout the financial world. Piecemeal adoption by one or a few states would merely be likely to drive the tainted monies elsewhere, and would not serve the desired purpose of reducing the extent/profitability of corruption.

The whole kingdom from north to south at the time of writing is enveloped in freezing Arctic weather, reminiscent of the North Russian campaign of long ago. The normal winter is relatively mild, mainly a Westerly pattern, occasionally wild and windy, wet with a rare cold “snap”. There are variations in the pattern, damp and warm in the south‐west, few frosts and rarely any snow; in the north of the country, Scotland, much colder, with the south‐east partaking of the weather pattern of the land mass of the Continent. The variations appear more of the mild weather in the South and colder, appreciably, in the North; recalling service personnel stationed at Gosport who did not need an overcoat all winter, whereas in the North, many found it necessary to wear a light overcoat tor most of the year, the south‐east corner of England, obtaining no help from the warming Gulf Stream, often gets the worst of the weather, which it has done to a very considerable extent in this winter.

Criminal proceedings can only follow the commission of an offence, made so by statute. If an act is not unlawful, it matters little with what motives a person commits it or the consequences; he is outside the law, i.e. criminal law; civil law might have a remedy, but criminal law does not. Even when a criminal offence is committed, it may contain ingredients without which, what would otherwise be a punishable act, becomes guiltless. Most qualifications to guilt are of longstanding, used by parliamentary draftsmen in a wide range of statutes and have acquired reasonably precise judicial meaning. Most relate to intention—wilfully, intentionally, knowingly—and in a few, judicial extension of the popular meaning and usage of the term has occurred to prevent an innocent stance being simulated by a guilty party. “Knowledge” is such an example. The term has been deliberately widened to cover persons who “shut their eyes” to an offence; where a person deliberately refrains from making enquiries, the results of which he would not care to know, this amounts to having such knowledge— constructive knowledge.

In years past, when life seemed simpler and the Law much less complicated, jurists were fond of quoting the age‐old saying: “All men are equal before the Law.” It was never completely true; there were important exemptions when strict legal enforcement would have been against the public interests. A classic example was Crown immunity, evolved from the historical principle that “The King can do no wrong”. With the growth of government, the multiplicity of government agencies and the enormous amount of secondary legislation, the statutes being merely enabling Acts, this immunity revealed itself as being used largely against public interests. Statutory instruments were being drafted within Ministerial departments largely by as many as 300 officers of those departments authorized to sign such measures, affecting the rights of the people without any real Parliamentary control. Those who suffered and lost in their enforcement had no remedy; Crown immunity protected all those acting as servants of the Crown and the principle came to be an officials' charter with no connection whatever with the Crown. Parliament, custodian of the national conscience, removed much of this socially unacceptable privilege in the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947, which enabled injured parties within limit to sue central departments and their officers. The more recent system of Commissioners—Parliamentary, Local Authority, Health Service—with power to enquire into allegations of injustice, maladministration, malpractice to individuals extra‐legally, has extended the rights of the suffering citizen.