HEAD SHOPS all around the country closed their doors or withdrew formerly “legal highs” from their shelves following the announcement of new legislation to ban many of the products yesterday.
Minister for Health Mary Harney announced the ban of a list of specified drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 through the introduction of a Government order.
At the same time, the Government agreed to draft legislation to regulate the sale of drugs by head shops that may have psycho-active effects, but this cannot be covered by the Act.
Drugs banned from sale include synthetic cannabinoids, benzylpiperazine, mephedrone, piperazine derivatives, flephedrone and MDPV.
It is now an offence to import, export, produce, supply or possess the banned substances where they are to be used for human ingestion, other than as a flavouring in food.
The Nirvana chain of head shops, which has six branches across the country, cleared its shelves of formerly legal highs, but remained open to sell pipes, bongs, lighters and other drug-related paraphernalia.
The Funky Skunk, with three branches in Cork and Limerick, also remained open to sell its range of clothing and jewellery. It had emptied its shelves early yesterday morning.
Potential customers trailed in and out of Nirvana, on South William Street, Dublin all afternoon, looking for products they could no longer have. “Any Gold?” one customer asked. “No, sorry,” the shop assistant responded, gesturing to the empty glass cases.
“What about out the back then?” the customer persisted. The assistant shook his head.
“Well, is there anywhere else I can get it?” he said, a note of desperation in his voice.
“You know as much about it as I do, mate,” the assistant replied. The customer shrugged his shoulders and left.
The shutters were firmly down on other head shops.
A hastily scribbled note in the window of the Dublin Head Shop in Temple Bar apologised to customers, and promised to reopen later. Most had bewildered potential customers standing outside at some stage. Off Bolton Street, a man told his young son “We’re too late, it’s closed.”
Outside another shop on Mary Street, a man who said he was not the proprietor said that owners would probably go through all their products to find what they could still sell before reopening.
“I wouldn’t say they are closed for good,” he said.
Seán Foy, director of the Learning Curve Institute, an organisation that provides drugs awareness training and counselling, said the ban was to be welcomed, but warned that head shops had not gone away.
“Head shops may have closed temporarily, but owners will continue to look for new chemicals and substances that can be sold legally as drugs in Ireland,” he said.
Fine Gael spokeswoman on the National Drug Strategy, Deputy Catherine Byrne, said the ban was a welcome step in the right direction, but that it should have been brought in months ago. She also asked how long it would take the Government to ban any new compounds that may appear on the market.
“Many questions still remain to be answered. Who will ensure that head shops are in compliance with this new legislation?” she asked.
“ Will the gardaí be given more manpower to inspect head shops on a regular basis, and arrest people found to be in possession of illegal drugs?”
Labour Party spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said the legislation would be meaningless unless there was a rigorous enforcement regime put in place.
Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews said yesterday was a great day for people all over the country who have campaigned to end the supply of these drugs.
Not so legal: three categories of drugs banned
SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS
These imitate the effects of cannabis and are sold under names such as Spice, Genie and Dream.
BENZYLPIPERAZINE AND ITS DERIVATIVES
These imitate the effects of ecstasy and are sold under names such as Party Pills, Dove, Diablo, BZP and Jet.
MEPHEDRONE, METHYLONE AND RELATED CATHINONES
Sold under names such as Miaow, Mcat, Bubbles and Meph, these products imitate the effects of cocaine.
