True, regulating them might be difficult just like drugs in real life, but I was thinking along the lines of the Fred and George selling them in their shop. How strong were those love potions? Also, Romilda Vane used a pretty strong potion or dosage if Ron was ready to strangle Harry under its influence. The ministry could at least declare them illegal. You wanna spice up your sex life? Sure, go ahead and use a less powered version in the bedroom. But you use it on someone else without permission, be ready to face a jail term.
In my opinion, strong love potions (like in HBP used by Romilda and Voldemort's mum) are just a few steps below Imperious curse.
The adults, Dumbledore included, even kids for that matter, never really considered the implications in the sixth book. Or perhaps Rowling was too busy juggling so many non-sense plot lines that she forgot to write how it should have impacted the characters.

 

Did Romilda even face the slightest consequences for what she did? Because from my limited recollections, her name didn't even come up again after the incident with Ron.

 

Harry brought Ron deliberately to Slughorn under the pretense that he didn't want Pomfrey asking awkward questions about why they were having things from the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

The love potion itself probably barely came up afterwards since Ron was poisoned by the Mead they were drinking to celebrate Ron's birthday.

 

Figured. Although I'm not sure I see the sense behind that rationale to avoid Madam Pomfrey, it's not like he and Ron would have gotten in trouble for the love potion. And given the blanket ban on WWW products, all the more reason to see Romilda punished.

 

It was less that they wanted to avoid Pomfrey, but more that Harry just needed a plausible excuse why he went to Slughorn instead of her.

 

It's been said already, but I fucking despise how the Malfoys got away with everything pretty much scot-free, only to carry on being notorious pieces of shit for decades later.

Lucius was Head of Muggle Torture, an Azkaban escapee, and harbored a notorious terrorist insurgent in his Manor for at least a year, probably more. Narcissa was a Quisling who went happily along her husband. Both of them continued to be vocal Blood Purists and Dark Wizards for decades after DH. The Muggle equivalent would be Klansmen who bombed a church, murdered 25 people, got away with it, and spend their days staring lovingly at their old Klan robes, that they had put in a full size shadow box in the foyer of their house.

Draco needed to be put to death. Period. Full stop. No exceptions. Multiple uses of an Unforgivable, two counts of attempted murder, one count of felony murder, and he orchestrated a terrorist attack on a boarding school. He's the magical equivalent of those Boko Haram fucks who did the same to that girls school in Nigeria.

Not snitching on Harry doesn't even come close to making up for the rest of what they did. And frankly, had they maintained their standing with LV, they would have squealed to high heaven. The whole family are POS opportunists.

And I don't buy the 'they were forced to do it!' argument either. The entire point of PoA is that you always have a choice.

 

I think that most witches and wizards can easily spot the effects of love potions. Love potions seem easy to counter. There is no point in banning something that is effectively harmless to most witches and wizards.

 

Yes, you always have a choice. But human civilisation has always just about always been understanding of the fact that duress, in various forms, needs to be taken into account when judging someone's actions. They had a choice. Their choice was to do what they did, or to see their family tortured to death horribly in front of them and then to be killed themselves.

Thats not really an amazing set of options, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a court that wouldn't take account of that when determining appropriate penalties.

 

With regard to Romilda's love potion, doesn't Slughorn say that they can get stronger the older they are? Romilda gave Harry some spiked chocolates at Christmas, but Ron didn't eat them for a couple of months, right?

 

Yes, Ron's behaviour does not seem to be the norm

 

I would imagine thats just one of those ultra basic pieces of cultural knowledge that people have in the magical world - you never use an out of date potion, and you always date your potions, no exceptions.

 

I personally enjoy the Idea that people actually make use of this aspect of potion making to increase the effectiveness of particular potions. Like instead of spirits and wines, wizard just store a cauldron of Euphoria Elixir for years so that it can result in a particularly enjoyable experience. Or to improve the reliability of more practical potions like Liquid Luck or Polyjuice.

 

Its probably something of an art to be able to age potions properly/safely, and for some of them it may be an acquired taste. And you know someone's got it bad when St Mungo's has to break out the Welsh Cavern Aged Calming Potions...

 

I don't necessarily agree with the consequences you think they should face, but I do think at least Draco and Lucius should have faced some consequences, though I'd say Lucius should face the worst. It would be a bit weird if he were just allowed out and about to do whatever after his history.

Regarding Narcissa, I'm not entirely sure what she was involved in prior to Voldemort's return, so I can't say. I suppose it would depend on what the investigations brought up.

Regarding Draco, I think the severity should depend on what he got up to that wasn't strictly commanded by Voldemort.

 

He decided on his own to lay in wait outside the RoR to capture Harry and the gang. The intent was clearly to turn him over to Voldemort and gain favor. That's attempted murder no matter how you slice it. The kid should have rotted in Azkaban.