Press Release

Head Shops are Running Rings Around the Law

Sinn Féin’s Cllr Thomas Gould has said Head Shops are running rings around the law and that government legislation to regulate the sector is overdue. He was commenting after the Irish Examiner revealed that at least nine new products imitating cocaine and amphetamines are being sold in Head Shops, less than a month after the government banned a range of legal highs.

Cllr Gould stated: “The fact that many Head Shops are not merely still in business, but have come out with a new range of products imitating the effects of illegal drugs, shows they are running rings around the law.”

“The government has constantly been playing catch-up on this issue. First of all it took it months to ban a range of dangerous substances on sale in these shops – now the shops have come up with new products and government is behind again.”

“For over a year, medical experts have warned of the dangers that legal highs pose to human health. Yet Head Shops across Cork City and County remain open, selling products whose effects are simply not known, but which the shop owners themselves label as not for human consumption.”

“Several months ago Sinn Féin published a bill outlining our proposals to properly regulate the Head Shop industry – and effectively close it down. We also warned that the approach of piecemeal bans on individual products would lead to precisely this scenario, with the Head Shop proprietors rushing to get around the law by producing new kinds of legal highs.”

“The government should urgently bring forward legislation that will solve this problem once and for all by making it an offense to supply psychoactive substances.”

For further information contact Cllr Thomas Gould 087/3021551