The Dutch opium laws are to be amended to stop designer drug makers switching ingredients to avoid their products being classed as illegal.

Junior health minister Paul Blokhuis told the Telegraaf on Friday that chemists adapt the chemical formula of their drugs when one type of pill is made illegal. By slightly changing the composition, the new drug will fall outside the law.

Now Blokhuis, with the backing of the two Christian parties in parliament, plans to make complete groups of chemicals used in designer drugs illegal. This will enable drugs to be banned outright, no matter what has been used to make them.

‘This means we will no longer be chasing after the facts,’ Blokhuis told the paper. The approach has already worked abroad, the Telegraaf said.

The minister did not go into details about how the chemical groups will be defined or when the new strategy will come into play.