The Irish authorities are lagging behind many other European countries in controlling the sale of legal highs in head shops at a time when more new products than ever are emerging, a new European drug monitoring report has found.
Some fourteen European countries have already introduced controls on the sale of the products while Ireland, Cyprus and Slovakia are still at the stage of “considering control measures”.
The new report has concluded that 24 new so-called legal highs emerged last year; the highest number since monitoring began five years ago.
It also found organised crime gangs have become involved in the trafficking of mephedrone.
The chemical is contained in white powder head shop products that mimic cocaine and are widely available in over 70 Irish head shops.
The Control of New Psychoactive Substances report was published yesterday by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and the European police agency, Europol.
Both agencies have become so concerned at mephedrone’s rapid emergence and its possible exponential spread that they have decided to study it more closely and compile a stand alone report on the dangers it poses.
The newly published report notes that 2009 and the first months of 2010 were marked by “significant new developments” in the illegal high and head shop sector across Europe.
“A distinct feature of the ’legal highs’ phenomenon is the speed at which the suppliers circumvent drug controls by offering unregulated alternatives that target specific groups of recreational drug users,” the report says.
