THE GOVERNMENT, as a first step in tackling parents’ concerns about head shops, should consider making it an offence for owners to sell head shop products to anyone under 17 years, a voluntary organisation providing drug education for parents said yesterday.
Bernie McDonnell, co-ordinator of Community Awareness of Drugs, said this could be done by introducing an amendment to the 1991 Childcare Act, which already made it an offence to sell, offer or make solvents available to a person aged 17 or under if there was reason to believe that he/she was likely to inhale them.
She said extending the law to make it an offence to sell head shop products to those aged 17 or under should be considered.
While she said head shops claimed they did not sell products to those under 18 years, this was not the case, according to parents in contact with her organisation.
The Childcare Act also permitted a garda to seize any substance in the possession of a child in a public place where the Garda had reasonable cause to believe it was being abused by a child, she said.
She added that this provision might be used in relation to seizing any so-called legal highs which might be bought from head shops by young people.
She has written to Minister for Health Mary Harney with her proposal.
The Department of Health said yesterday all avenues will be examined in relation to regulation of the head shop sector.
It intends to have regulations drafted this month which will introduce controls, similar to those introduced recently in the UK, on a range of substances which are currently on sale in head shops, the department said.