[420 Girl]

Ireland - Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said today he was determined to stop the headshops drug trade in its tracks.

Introducing a Bill in the Dáil to criminalise the sale of psychoactive substances, he said he was also stepping in to “stymie any regrowth in the headshop industry”.

Under the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Bill 2010, it will be an offence to sell, import or export unregulated psychoactive substances for human consumption, Mr Ahern said.

“In addition - and very importantly - I am providing powers for the Garda and the courts to issue prohibition and closures orders in respect of persons or premises where the sale of such products continues despite notice to cease," he told the Dáil.

The Bill will also restrict internet sales of such substances and home delivery. It will criminalises the sale of objects for cultivation by hydroponic means”, which involves growing cannabis plants in liquid, often indoors under powerful lights.

Gardaí had identified 102 headshops before regulations were introduced by Minister for Health Mary Harney to make the sale of more than 200 products illegal.

Mr Ahern said the number of headshops fell to 34 after the rules were brought in. “Garda figures indicate that 48 headshops were trading nationwide on June 10th, although this figure had reduced to 44 on June 14th, " the Minister told TDs.

Fine Gael’s new justice spokesman Alan Shatter welcomed the principle of the Bill but said there were substantial flaws in it which needed to be amended or the “routemap” to close headshops could take too long. He also criticised the Government for the delay in producing the legislation.

Dublin Central Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne said the Bill “really only scratches the surface of the problem” and she believed the country was “slowly losing the war on drugs”. Conservative estimates put the number of drug users at 15,000 with 9,000 registered methadone users but she said it could be much higher.

The party’s health spokesman Dr James Reilly expressed concern about the sale of such drugs through the internet and that headshops offered “home deliveries up to four o’clock in the morning”.

Sinn Féin justice spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh said he believed the legislation would be successfully challenged in the courts.

Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke from Longford-Westmeath said the lines had been blurred between health shops and head shops and people often confused the two.


NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Irish Times
Author: MARIE O'HALLORAN and MICHAEL O'REGAN
Contact: The Irish Times
Copyright: 2010 irishtimes.com
Website: Bill on headshop drugs before Dáil


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