PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES FINALLY BANNED

Posted on May 25, 2010 at 11:32 AM

The decision of the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to ban certain psychoactive substances, such as Mephedrone, which are currently on sale in Head Shops, is most welcome.

The banned substances will be included in the Misuse of Drugs Act and are illegal from today.

Of course the ban should have been introduced months ago before the proliferation of Head Shops country wide began. Yesterday the EU Commission told the Minister for Health what the Labour Party has been telling her for months, namely, that there was no need to await the expiration of a three month consultation period before legislation could be introduced to ban certain substances in Head Shops.

As always with this government it is a case of too little, too late.

The suppliers of the psychoactive substances have had months of advance warning from the government as to which substances were to be banned.  All they have to do is withdraw the existing substances, alter the mix of ingredients, and supply the Head Shops with a new synthetic substance with a new name.

The ban by the Minister for Health is unlikely to have any long term effect on the Head Shop industry.

Nevertheless, the Gardaí throughout the country should immediately search each Head Shop for the newly banned substances and close the premises down if the owners still persist in providing them for sale.

Secondly, the new legislative proposals announced today by the Minister for Justice to close down all Head Shops and place the onus on the proprietors to prove that they are not selling any psychoactive substances is cutting across the action by the Minister for Health which is to leave the shops open and only ban the dangerous substances in them.  Also, undoubtedly the legality and constitutionality of the proposals from the Minister for Justice will be contested in the Courts when they become law.

The steps being taken by the Gardaí in Store Street are the most effective to date.  They have visited every one of the 16 Head Shops that opened up in the North Inner City.  They warned the owners that they intended to charge them under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the

Persons Act (1997) for the offence of “reckless endangerment”.  The files against 13 Head Shop owners are with the DPP awaiting a decision on prosecution.

Other actions by the Gardaí in Store Street have resulted in landlords terminating agreements with Head Shop tenants.

At the request of the Gardaí, enforcement officers visited Head Shops and have also closed some down in the North Inner City for breach of fire regulations.

Finally, I urge the government to accept the Labour Party Bill which I moved in the Dáil last month “The Planning and Development Bill (2010)” which would require all Head Shops to have planning permission.

This would have the effect of closing down existing Head Shops by compelling them to apply for retention, and would prevent new Head Shops being opened as planning permission would be extremely difficult to obtain

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