Harder ice penalties in Vic drug war

Smaller weights of ice will get dealers slapped with trafficking offences and there will be a blanket ban on synthetic drugs under new Victorian laws set to be introduced.

In a bid to clamp down on synthetic drugs - often sold as 'legal highs' - new legislation will ban all substances claiming to have a psychoactive effect.

Currently the only way synthetic drugs become illicit in Victoria is to legally categorise each specific compound as they are discovered.

"Synthetic drugs are dangerous chemical cocktails that don't belong on the counter - we'll make it illegal to make them and sell them," Premier Daniel Andrews said on Wednesday.

Similar laws are already in place in NSW and WA.

The government is also slashing the trafficable weights of methylamphetamine, commonly called ice.

Under the changes, a commercial trafficable quantity will be halved from 100g to 50g when pure, and 500g to 250g when cut with other substances.

A large commercial trafficable quantity will be dropped from 750g to 500g when pure and from one kilogram to 750g when mixed.

The legislation was introduced into parliament on Wednesday.