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Coffee grounds and slugs
I was wondering if it would harm some kale plants I had just planted, to put coffee grounds around them so my OH googled it. Imagine my surprise when he found out that it was illegal to use coffee grounds to deter slugs as pesticide tests have not been carried out on coffee grounds! It is alright, apparently, to use them as a mulch or to enrich compost. So now we know! 
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I should think it's illegal to sell coffee grounds as a slug deterrent rather than illegal to use your own in your own garden
In the sticks near Peterborough
The article definitely said the use of coffee grounds as a slug deterrent was illegal and the fines for doing so we're quite heavy!
I've heard about that before: I thought that's why you could use coffee grounds as a "soil conditioner". Not sure how effective it is, but at least it smells nice!
I should have remembered the link between law and ass
In the sticks near Peterborough
Try egg shells - surely the coffee grounds police couldn't object to that !!
I think coffee grounds tend to make the soil more acidic, so in this case it wouldn't be the best thing to use around brassicas, which like an alkaline soil.
I have tried coffee grounds both used and fresh from the packet. They do not deter slugs or snails from plants they want to eat. Chuck 'em on your compost heap.
I find a good deep gravel mulch keeps them away. Not particularly practical, but it keeps the moisture in the soil and slugs dont seem to like going over it when its dry.
But say it was illegal. Who would enforce it? lol
The truth is that no one can police this stupid law but according to ''The Garden'' magazine the thing is to discourage people using their own methods of slug control which may be harmful, Talk about a nanny state.????