Government slow to respond to establishment of head shops
Issued : Friday 16 April, 2010
Statement by Joe Costello TD
Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Trade and Development
At last year's Annual Conference nobody had heard of Head Shops. The phenomenon appeared out of the blue and spread rapidly through town and country.
It didn't happen overnight of course, it was carefully planned. The range, mix and nomenclature of the legal drugs were carefully designed to mimic the appearance, the effects and the description of certain well known illegal drugs banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
"Legal highs "are the perfect way to supply the lucrative drug trade and to avoid the sanctions of the drugs laws.
The Government has been slow to respond to the establishment of Head Shops. The public have been demanding action for some time. The community has marched and protested in Dublin, Roscommon, Mayo, Westmeath, Kilkenny and other places. A few Head Shops have closed down but other have opened. There are fifteen in my own constituency and over one hundred countrywide.
Some sinister forces have exploited the Governments inaction and have fire bombed at least three Head Shops in the Dublin area. In the absence of Government action the number of Head Shops will proliferate and vigilantism and turf wars will increase.
In the meantime young people, particularly young teenagers, are able to purchase and consume cheap synthetic drugs that are damaging to their health and whose long term effects we can only imagine.
Already projects in the North Inner City are reporting that the injection of some of these products is having an adverse effect on the veins of young people similar to that caused by years of heroin and cocaine injection on veteran heroin users.
The issues to be addressed in the Health Shop phenomenon are issues of public health and public safety.
In my own constituency in Dublin's North Inner City parents are beside themselves with fear for their teenage sons and daughters. There is real worry that the drug epidemic of heroin and cocaine which destroyed a generation of young people in the 1980's and 1990's could now be repeated by the unregulated and unlicensed activity of the Head Shops selling far cheaper legal highs.
Already Gardaí are reporting a sharp increase in larceny and burglary in the North Inner City.
The Labour Party has been to the forefront in seeking to address the threat.
Our Spokesperson on Health, Jan O'Sullivan and myself have published the Planning and Development Bill 2010 and moved it for debate in the Dáil. This Bill would require special "change of use" planning permission for any premises to become a Head Shop.
At present any retail unit can open as a Head Shop like the flower shop in Clontarf that became a Head Shop overnight while both the Planning Authority and the public were denied any say in the matter.
The Government's belated statement of intent to ban certain products being sold in Head Shops is already too little and too late. By naming the products four months in advance it has flagged its intentions. New synthetic drugs will most likely be ready to replace them in June. Indeed Gardaí in the North Inner City have evidence to that effect already.
The Government does not need to notify the EU about its intention to ban drugs it considers dangerous. The relevant EU Directive dealing with restrictive trade practices specifically provides for just such an exemption stating that member States are free to act immediately to protect the health of their citizens.
Mephedrone, for example, one of the most damaging drugs sold in Head Shops is already banned in a number of EU countries such as Germany and Norway.
At present anyone, including minors, can purchase any product on sale in Head Shops. Mislabelling and false branding are widespread.
We must address this new threat to our young people from all angles with a comprehensive package of measures. We must ensure that a tight licensing and regulatory framework is put in place. We must ensure that there is strict enforcement of consumer law and in particular we must ban the dangerous products on sale immediately.
The present Government is too hesitant and indecisive; it is stumbling from crisis to crisis and is incapable of effective action.
We cannot have the lives of another generation of our young people put at risk because the Government of the day failed to act.
We must continue to highlight the seriousness of the Head Shop threat to our young people.
At the same time we must continue to campaign to get this clapped out Government out of office as quickly as possible so that we can get on with doing the job ourselves.
