Legal Highs made illegal now 'effectively legal again' sez RTE

Muahahaha

Anyone else see the Prime Time report earlier? Effectively Gardai do not have the powers in court to prosecute possession or sale of legal highs that used to be sold by head shops in the street till Mary Harney banned it.

So now it turns out that since the new law came in 2010 there has only been 5 prosecutions and the majority of these were head shop owners refusing to stop selling for a week or two after the law came in. The legislation says that Gardai need to be able to prove that the drugs they have seized are psychoactive substances and it seems like (at the moment and for the last 5 years) they simply don't have the resources to do this. Effectively their hands are tied.

Which now seems to suggest that anyone caught buying legal highs online or in possession of them or selling them cannot be prosecuted under the current laws

You really couldn't make this stuff up, it's both a clusterfcuk and an omnishambles by the Govt.

In the meantime fill yer boots cause Joe Duffy is gonna be coming for Round 2 :pac:

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Legal highs are muck anyways.

hatrickpatrick

Meh. It's nothing to celebrate really unless head shops are allowed to openly sell again. A blanket ban on "psychoactive substances", regardless of harm, is pretty much the definition of thought-ctime. Ideologically, they're saying that you are not allowed to experience certain states of mind, just because. F*ck that.

nokia69

The Honey Monster wrote: »

Legal highs are muck anyways.

they were better than the illegal highs back in the day

BMJD

I'd say Joe Duffy had a tug watching that.

fleet_admiral

Anyone here 30+ will know the great legal high of getting out of a chair too fast

nxbyveromdwjpg

Muahahaha wrote: »

The legislation says that Gardai need to be able to prove that the drugs they have seized are psychoactive substances and it seems like (at the moment and for the last 5 years) they simply don't have the resources to do this.

Obviously they have to prove their case.

Is this really what the issue is??

I don't know why RTE were calling it a "dead act" either, it prevents the open selling, it removed all the head shops overnight. That's what it was for and for better or worse it worked.

“Only five prosecutions".. the stuff is so horrible and wildly unpopular that's probably actually a hefty % of the users.

Nothing to see here.

suicide_circus

*grinds teeth and sweats profusely*

Simon2015

I'm surprised the law was never challenged in court. You can still buy mind altering substances in hardware stores which are perfectly legal.

If the headshops wanted to they could reopen and pretend to sell cleaning products.

bigpink

Are there headshops still open?

Dick phelan

Legal Highs only serve to show exactly why drugs should be decriminalized and weed legal, Those legal highs are actually far worse then the real thing, actual weed wouldn't cause anything like the problems some of the knock off versions do, It's a crazy situation if the ones that do more harm are legal while the less dangerous thing is illegal.

Sam Quentin

The owners of the original legal high shops should have been executed on the spot!?<<< my post is half joking half in earnest..... These filthy rotten head melting drugs are destroying the lives of quite a high percentage of our youth...

Gaygooner

Whitney Houston bath salts special please

Insect Overlord

I'd say the owners of The Body Shop were fierce worried there for a while.

endacl

fleet_admiral wrote: »

Anyone here 30+ will know the great legal high of getting out of a chair too fast

30 stone, or 30 years?

Bongalongherb

LOL. I can't understand this at all regarding folk being even slightly interested in these head-shop drugs 'mixed man-made chemicals'. Why the hell would anyone want to take that garbage made in China with heck knows what chemicals it's made from ? seriously, putting that muck into your lungs and body is taking a serious risk when you have no idea what is in the stuff.

It boggles my mind why folk even bother with that stuff. Does anyone anymore even question what chemicals are in that stuff ? or do they just feel a blunt dead feeling and don't care ?.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Bongalongherb wrote: »

LOL. I can't understand this at all regarding folk being even slightly interested in these head-shop drugs 'mixed man-made chemicals'. Why the hell would anyone want to take that garbage made in China with heck knows what chemicals it's made from ? seriously, putting that muck into your lungs and body is taking a serious risk when you have no idea what is in the stuff.

It boggles my mind why folk even bother with that stuff. Does anyone anymore even question what chemicals are in that stuff ? or do they just feel a blunt dead feeling and don't care ?.

both. I'm no scientist, bit i did a lot of research as to what i could expect from the drugs i was tsking and as a result had entirely safe and positive experiences.

Curiously, how do you know the products the head shops well selling is 'Chinese garbage'? What research have you done?

kneemos

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

both. I'm no scientist, bit i did a lot of research as to what i could expect from the drugs i was tsking and as a result had entirely safe and positive experiences.

Curiously, how do you know the products the head shops well selling is 'Chinese garbage'? What research have you done?

This guy's looked at the internet and has been assured the manufacturers of this crap are really really conscientious and bring their Grandmothers flowers every weekend.

Tarzana2

Dick phelan wrote: »

Legal Highs only serve to show exactly why drugs should be decriminalized and weed legal, Those legal highs are actually far worse then the real thing, actual weed wouldn't cause anything like the problems some of the knock off versions do, It's a crazy situation if the ones that do more harm are legal while the less dangerous thing is illegal.

Erm, you know there are illegal highs other than weed, right?

Simon2015

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Curiously, how do you know the products the head shops well selling is 'Chinese garbage'? What research have you done?

Its common knowledge that most of that legal high crap is made in china.

Call Me Jimmy

fish eye vision, rooted to the couch for hours that seemd like days, ended up doing the Thriller dance in the ambulance... all on a legal high

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Simon2015 wrote: »

Its common knowledge that most of that legal high crap is made in china.

I'm querying his use if the word garbage as much of his use of the word China. Basically, i want to know if his basis for such claim is Joe Duffy and the Daily Mail, or something a bit more comprehensive.

MadsL

Simon2015 wrote: »

Its common knowledge that most of that legal high crap is made in china.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum

Akrasia

nokia69 wrote: »

they were better than the illegal highs back in the day

Seriously?
You need to have a chat with your dealer.

All that 'legal high' stuff was awful, and dangerous. Nobody had any idea what was in any of it or how it was made. You might as well be putting some tippex onto a bit of newspaper, rolling it up and smoking it.

myshirt

Guess I can finally move on from inhaling Toilet Duck of a Friday night.
Win win for consumer choice.

sonny.knowles

Muahahaha wrote: »

Anyone else see the Prime Time report earlier? Effectively Gardai do not have the powers in court to prosecute possession or sale of legal highs that used to be sold by head shops in the street till Mary Harney banned it.

So now it turns out that since the new law came in 2010 there has only been 5 prosecutions and the majority of these were head shop owners refusing to stop selling for a week or two after the law came in. The legislation says that Gardai need to be able to prove that the drugs they have seized are psychoactive substances and it seems like (at the moment and for the last 5 years) they simply don't have the resources to do this. Effectively their hands are tied.

Which now seems to suggest that anyone caught buying legal highs online or in possession of them or selling them cannot be prosecuted under the current laws

You really couldn't make this stuff up, it's both a clusterfcuk and an omnishambles by the Govt.

In the meantime fill yer boots cause Joe Duffy is gonna be coming for Round 2 :pac:

So are you blaming the current government or the last government?

RDM_83 again

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

both. I'm no scientist, bit i did a lot of research as to what i could expect from the drugs i was tsking and as a result had entirely safe and positive experiences.

Curiously, how do you know the products the head shops well selling is 'Chinese garbage'? What research have you done?

From friends that worked in chemistry and pharma there is serious quality control issues with a lot of Chinese product (not legal highs) and they know the supply chain.Were the head shops buying pharmaceutical grade product or just getting it from some alibaba trader?Remember they weren't technically selling for human consumption.
BZP and Methedrone are both AFAIK more harmful than the drugs they replace.

padd b1975

Akrasia wrote: »

Seriously?
You need to have a chat with your dealer.

All that 'legal high' stuff was awful, and dangerous. Nobody had any idea what was in any of it or how it was made. You might as well be putting some tippex onto a bit of newspaper, rolling it up and smoking it.

So stick with Fat Freddie's quality controlled products?

nelly17

I seem to remember at the time a lot of commentators saying rushed legislation is bad legislation, this seems to have proven them right

Bongalongherb

Another thing nobody seems to think about is the mixing of this synthetic crap with the already bad so-called real cannabis on the street. If they mixed half of it with so-called real cannabis the dealers make a bigger profit again. The deaths and mental health problems of using synthetic cannabis or mixed with street cannabis is just going to cause more and more problems down the road for the health service.

The only way to deal with all of this is to legalise clean real cannabis and at least then you will know what strain of cannabis you are smoking and in the knowledge that it is clean of any crap, otherwise it's all downhill from here on out.

And yes, China makes all of the synthetic sh!te.

You are basically a test subject for the unknown effects using that stuff.

Branque420

bigpink wrote: »

Are there headshops still open?

Up the road in Newry, sir.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Another thing nobody seems to think about is the mixing of this synthetic crap with the already bad so-called real cannabis on the street. If they mixed half of it with so-called real cannabis the dealers make a bigger profit again. The deaths and mental health problems of using synthetic cannabis or mixed with street cannabis is just going to cause more and more problems down the road for the health service.

The only way to deal with all of this is to legalise clean real cannabis and at least then you will know what strain of cannabis you are smoking and in the knowledge that it is clean of any crap, otherwise it's all downhill from here on out.

And yes, China makes all of the synthetic sh!te.

You are basically a test subject for the unknown effects using that stuff.

I'm all for legalising it but what you're saying doesn't happen.

People would know straight away that the stuff was rubbish, and wouldn't buy it again.

ScumLord

fleet_admiral wrote: »

Anyone here 30+ will know the great legal high of getting out of a chair too fast

Ya, it's even better if your high.

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Another thing nobody seems to think about is the mixing of this synthetic crap with the already bad so-called real cannabis on the street.

Bad, so called weed on the street is typically no worse than good quality weed, it's just a bit of plant with less of the drug in it. Typically it's hard to mix synthetic cannabis substitute with weed because weed comes in a bud. If it's not in a bud don't buy it, simples.

The only way to deal with all of this is to legalise clean real cannabis and at least then you will know what strain of cannabis you are smoking and in the knowledge that it is clean of any crap, otherwise it's all downhill from here on out.

The only way to guarantee it's "clean" is to process all the plant material out. Cannabis is a plant, you can't guarantee that one batch will be exactly the same as the last plant, even if it's a clone.

Bongalongherb

Well, for anyone smoking that synthetic muck, good luck with the laboratory experiment testing of yourselves, brain damage more than likely.

Lights On

Great documentary on the stuff here.

Bongalongherb

ScumLord wrote: »

Ya, it's even better if your high.

Bad, so called weed on the street is typically no worse than good quality weed, it's just a bit of plant with less of the drug in it. Typically it's hard to mix synthetic cannabis substitute with weed because weed comes in a bud. If it's not in a bud don't buy it, simples.

The only way to guarantee it's "clean" is to process all the plant material out. Cannabis is a plant, you can't guarantee that one batch will be exactly the same as the last plant, even if it's a clone.

I don't think you understand. You say 'so called weed on the street is typically no worse than good quality weed, it's just a bit of plant with less of the drug in it'.

Wrong. Naturally grown cannabis doesn't have sprayed glass and other crap sprayed onto it. Big difference. Also you can mix the synthetic cannabis with real cannabis because real cannabis is sometimes sold crushed and it would be easily mixed with it, they are not always sold in bud, usually a grinder is used.

ScumLord

Bongalongherb wrote: »

I don't think you understand. You say 'so called weed on the street is typically no worse than good quality weed, it's just a bit of plant with less of the drug in it'.

Wrong. Naturally grown cannabis doesn't have sprayed glass and other crap sprayed onto it. Big difference. Also you can mix the synthetic cannabis with real cannabis because real cannabis is sometimes sold crushed and it would be easily mixed with it, they are not always sold in bud, usually a grinder is used.

Don't buy it. If there's glass in your weed it's easy enough to spot, if the weed isn't in a bud don't take it. The reason drug quality is so poor in Ireland is because Irish people seem to accept any old shyte they get handed.

suicide_circus

In fairness now, the replacement smoke was pure bollox, the other stuff had its moments it has to be said.

Bongalongherb

ScumLord wrote: »

Don't buy it. If there's glass in your weed it's easy enough to spot, if the weed isn't in a bud don't take it. The reason drug quality is so poor in Ireland is because Irish people seem to accept any old shyte they get handed.

Myself personally I don't use street or synthetic drugs so it won't affect me, I'm just saying that anyone taking that crap is taking a chance with either smoking or ingesting unknown laboratory chemicals.

ScumLord

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Myself personally I don't use street or synthetic drugs so it won't affect me, I'm just saying that anyone taking that crap is taking a chance with either smoking or ingesting unknown laboratory chemicals.

Agreed, I know someone who had horrible mental problems after using it. Took well over a year for them to recover and they're still not right. I only tried it two or three times when it was in the headshops and it was nasty stuff, it wouldn't tempt me at all now.

LDN_Irish

ScumLord wrote: »

Don't buy it. If there's glass in your weed it's easy enough to spot, if the weed isn't in a bud don't take it. The reason drug quality is so poor in Ireland is because Irish people seem to accept any old shyte they get handed.

I haven't seen sprayed weed since around 2010. The **** is unmistakable. Most of the weed I've seen in the last couple of years has been of very high quality. The occasional bit that's not great but it's definitely not mixed with XXX or Spice (or whatever the flup) or sprayed with glass. You'd spot that a mile off.

LDN_Irish

I'm pro legalisation but the head shops pretty much represent the absolute worst of all world's.

Shiny packaging to appeal to the young. Check.
Unidentified powder that you're not sure the effects of. Check.
Some dopey scrote only concerned with money half telling you that the stuff is the strongest stuff you'll ever take. Half lying about how the comedown isn't bad. Half winking at you while telling you it's not for humans to take*. Check.

* 3 halves you say? Tells you all you need to know about head shops.

Yakkyda

Agreed with not seeing that sprayed glass **** in years, weed dealers tend to get high off their own supply and the majority of the lads I know simply refused to buy or supply it, so it died out pretty sharpish. One or two kept it up but the customers drifted away in the end.

All that head shop crap is nasty as ****, if you wanna snort, do some coke. Wanna do a pill, do an e. Most recreational drug users buy from generally trusted sources(friends and people in their social circles) those people in general won't be selling ****e or dangerous substitute fobbed off as the real deal. It's bad for business and could potentially lead back to them if someone takes I'll. The vast majority don't want that sh:t. True their's some right scummy dealers around, but I'd reckon the majority of the low level dealing is friends procuring for friends type thing.

Head shops will sell any aul ****e, and it is muck. Bzp/methredrone etc all are dodgy and potential long effects are unknown atm.at least with mdma/e there's 25+ yrs of evidence, it's a pretty safe drug in moderation, research crap who knows?

Bongalongherb

Grow your own clean cannabis for your own personal use and it could be prison or a big fine or both.

Get caught with this dangerous synthetic drug and you are let go scot-free no charges. Something really fcuked up with that.

ScumLord

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Grow your own clean cannabis for your own personal use and it could be prison or a big fine or both.

Even if the government just let it be known that they wouldn't prosecute for up to four plants, it would be a serious financial blow to drug gangs. A hell of a lot of regular cannabis users wouldn't go near a dealer if they felt safe growing their own.

nxbyveromdwjpg

ScumLord wrote: »

A hell of a lot of regular cannabis users wouldn't go near a dealer if they felt safe growing their own.

And another lot couldn't be arsed and would rather just pay someone else with more experience in matters of horticulture to grow it.

Just legalise it, or decriminalise at least if that's all that's palatable, but do it in full and be done with this nonsense. That'd be my vote.

RDM_83 again

Harold Vast Landscape wrote: »

And another lot couldn't be arsed and would rather just pay someone else with more experience in matters of horticulture to grow it.

Just legalise it, or decriminalise at least if that's all that's palatable, but do it in full and be done with this nonsense. That'd be my vote.

Was the headshop trade mainly synthetic smoke though?I thought the big business (at least in my social group) was in the various uppers.

Rezident

The Honey Monster wrote: »

Legal highs are muck anyways.

Not true, a lot of them are rubbish but the good ones are excellent. They are a synthetic of the real thing and activate the exact same receptors. Feels almost exactly the same. Very impressive really.

Arbiter of Good Taste

When a head shop opened up near where I lived at the time, incidents of random assaults in the area went up. But I'm sure that's purely coincidental :rolleyes:

brianregan09

and while you're at it save you're the lungs the trouble and make cannibis butter out of you're weed almost an E like high off it once you make it into brownies or whatever else you can out of butter unreal

That spice and XXX stuff was make pure smelly taste off it and didn't really do much for ya

harry Bailey esq

nokia69 wrote: »

they were better than the illegal highs back in the day

Youve obviously never had a speckled dove back in the day....