SYNTHETIC AND herbal substances that mimic the effect of illegal drugs should not be sold in the Republic, the Minister of State with responsibility for drugs, John Curran, said yesterday.
Mr Curran said he was working to deal with the problem of “head shops”, which sell these substances, and had sought advice on introducing legislation in the short term, similar to that recently introduced in the UK.
Last month, Britain introduced a ban on a range of so-called “legal highs”, including GBL, BZP and chemicals sprayed on herbal smoking products such as Spice. BZP was banned in this State last March.
Mr Curran said he was also examining issues around planning permission for head shops, public liability insurance, product liability insurance and consumer protection.
He was speaking at a conference on head shops and legal highs, organised by the National Regional Drugs Task Forces, in Mullingar yesterday.
The conference heard that dozens of new head shops had opened around the country in recent times and some were open until 4am at the weekends to attract business from young people leaving nightclubs. Some head shops were also running home delivery services.
“The products that are being sold in head shops – I simply don’t want them sold in this country,” Mr Curran said. “My view is that they pose an unnecessary risk.”
He also expressed concern at the danger that Ireland could become “a dumping ground” for the substances banned in Britain.
Dr Des Corrigan, chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, told the conference he was concerned about the lack of basic safety data on many head shop products. “Because the drugs they appear to contain have never been tested for safety in humans, we have to rely, at present, on user reports,” he said.
“These may not be reliable because people often don’t know what exactly they have taken and there is no way of knowing how much has been used. Nor do we know what other drugs might have been taken by users which could change the effects and risks.”
Speaking before the conference, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Bobby Smyth said these products did not feature three or four years ago when teenagers presented with drug and alcohol problems.
“Last year 7 per cent of the teenagers presented with use of these products, generally as part of a picture of poly-substance use, often including alcohol and cannabis, so it’s complicating the addiction mix,” he said.
Dr Smyth said people using these substances could have experienced frightening reactions, both immediately after taking the substances, or weeks or even months afterwards.
He said the shops were operating entirely outside any regulatory framework and there were more regulations around producing a ham sandwich than there were around substances that could affect the brain.
