Ireland's head shops under attack
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/042810_headshops
Bombings of head shops, which sell legal drugs, have sparked debate
about Irish drug policy
Apr 28, 2010
Conor O'Clery
DUBLIN - It started with an explosion that destroyed the Nirvana shop
in Dublin's Capel Street on Feb. 12.
Five days later a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the Happy Hippy
store in North Frederick Street.
Since then seven retail outlets with similar exotic names have been
attacked with incendiary devices in different parts of Ireland, the
latest being the Magic Bus Stop in Dundalk on April 15.
They are all so-called "head shops," which specialize in the sale of
legal drugs and associated paraphernalia. There are 70 such stores in
the Republic of Ireland, and clearly some organization or group of
citizens wants to put them out of business.
The head shops' products have become something of a craze among
Ireland's middle-class youth.
This makes them lucrative business ventures in recession-hit Ireland.
In a two-hour period on a recent Friday night, a television crew
recorded 400 young customers lining up at a head shop to pay an
average of 40 euros ($53) for drugs with names like Snow Blow and
Wild Cat. These substances often contain mephedrone, a chemical in
white powder form that mimics cocaine and is completely legal in Ireland.
The head of the Irish police's national drug squad, Tony Quilter,
said the force monitors the head shops and so far has found only four
selling illegal drugs. The police do not know who is behind the
attacks on the head shops, Quilter said. The chief suspects include
local drug dealers who are losing business or vigilante groups
worried about the effect of the shops on their neighborhoods.
As the public becomes increasingly concerned about the legal drug
trend, the Irish government is rushing to prepare a bill to
criminalize the sale of legal highs. It has fallen behind the rest of
Europe, where 14 countries have introduced measures to control the
sale of such substances, with varying degrees of success. A ban on
mephedrone came into effect in Great Britain and Northern Ireland
three weeks ago, giving a new dimension to cross-border shopping.
But lawmakers will have a hard time keeping up. Twenty-four new,
legal, chemical-based drugs emerged in Europe last year to satisfy a
continent-wide demand for synthetic highs, according to a report from
the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Nine of
these are marketed as plant foods or spices but can be smoked to give
a similar effect to cannabis.
Mephedrone has been linked to a number of deaths in other countries,
and much publicity has been given to the case of a young Dublin man,
Daryl Smith, who tried to commit suicide after taking an overdose.
Smith was waiting at a bridge to jump under a train and then tried to
stab himself with a screwdriver. The 19-year-old student is typical
of educated teenagers who would never buy illegal drugs but regularly
get high on mephedrone.
With the proliferation of new drugs, the Irish minister for community
affairs, Pat Carey, wants to prohibit head shops operating as legal
entities. Banning the substances may not be enough, he argues.
According to the Monitoring Centre report, suppliers easily
circumvent drug controls by offering unregulated alternatives. The
composition in terms of synthetic additives is constantly changing to
evade control measures, and new packaging appears all the time.
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern agreed that one of the problems
of banning a substance was that a variation of that product could be
quickly introduced. He is aiming to change the law "to deal with the
issue from a criminal justice point of view, as well as from a health
point of view." But some members of Ahern's own Fianna Fail party
sharply disagree. Parliament backbencher Jim McDaid said his approach
would be a huge mistake, as it would allow criminal gangs to take
over the businesses.
Because of the adverse publicity they have received recently, some
head shops have begun distributing leaflets offering home delivery.
In some parts of Dublin it is now as easy to get artificial cocaine
or cannabis delivered to your door as it is to order a pizza.
.
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