A NUMBER of so-called head shops have begun selling equipment that can be used to cultivate cannabis plants – and thanks to a loophole in recently introduced legislation they cannot be prosecuted for the practice.
Some head shop outlets have rebranded themselves as “grow shops” and are selling the specialised lighting, insulation, extractor fan and irrigation systems needed to grow crops of plants. They are also selling cannabis seeds. The seeds are not banned here because they do not contain THC, the main component in cannabis.
“It’s only when they start to grow that THC emerges and they actually become cannabis,” said one source.
The kits on sale can be used to intensively grow a range of plants. They are being marketed in shops, not as cannabis-growing equipment but as kits for growing conventional, and legal, plants.
The sale of cultivation equipment that can be used to grow cannabis plants is banned under the Psychoactive Substances Act, which was introduced last year to close head shops.
Section 4 of the Act states: “A person who sells any object knowing that it will be used to cultivate by hydroponic means any (cannabis) plant . . . shall be guilty of an offence.” However, Garda sources said it would very difficult, if not impossible, to prove that a salesperson in a shop knew that the equipment they were selling was to be used to cultivate cannabis, rather than grow other, legal, plants.
There is no evidence to suggest that any of the shops selling the kits have done so knowing they were to be used to grow cannabis.
Other Garda sources point out that the inclusion of the term “hydroponic” in Section 4 of the Act is very problematic.
The hydroponic growth method relates to the cultivation of cannabis plants in water, rather than in soil. However, the water-based cultivation of cannabis plants is virtually unheard of in Ireland.
There is no reference in the Act to the banning of the sale of equipment used to grow cannabis plants in soil, which is the main growth method used by people who have been caught growing cannabis here.
Said one Garda source: “It looks like even if we were able to prove a person sold equipment knowing it was going to be used to grow cannabis, once the cannabis plants were grown in soil rather than water, the person who sold the equipment would not have broken the law.”
However, anyone found growing the cannabis with the equipment could be prosecuted.
While some head shops have been rebranded as “grow shops”, most such premises have closed since the introduction of the Act. It banned the sale of substances sold by head shops that mimicked the effects of cocaine and other drugs.
