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

Muahahaha · 18-11-2015 12:58AM #1

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 · 18-11-2015 01:00AM

Legal highs are muck anyways.

hatrickpatrick · 18-11-2015 01:00AM

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 · 18-11-2015 01:04AM

The Honey Monster wrote: »

Legal highs are muck anyways.

they were better than the illegal highs back in the day

BMJD · 18-11-2015 01:10AM

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

fleet_admiral · 18-11-2015 01:19AM

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

nxbyveromdwjpg · 18-11-2015 01:24AM

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 · 18-11-2015 02:22AM

*grinds teeth and sweats profusely*

Simon2015 · 18-11-2015 02:45AM

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 · 18-11-2015 02:47AM

Are there headshops still open?

Dick phelan · 18-11-2015 02:47AM

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 · 18-11-2015 02:56AM

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 · 18-11-2015 02:59AM

Whitney Houston bath salts special please

Insect Overlord · 18-11-2015 02:59AM

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

endacl · 18-11-2015 03:02AM

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 · 18-11-2015 03:07AM

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 · 18-11-2015 03:33AM

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 · 18-11-2015 03:45AM

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 · 18-11-2015 03:55AM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:01AM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:05AM

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 · 18-11-2015 04:42AM

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 · 18-11-2015 06:27AM

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 · 18-11-2015 09:59AM

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 · 18-11-2015 10:07AM

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

sonny.knowles · 18-11-2015 10:23AM

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 · 18-11-2015 10:26AM

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 · 18-11-2015 10:33AM

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 · 18-11-2015 10:51AM

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 · 18-11-2015 05:40PM

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 · 18-11-2015 05:43PM

bigpink wrote: »

Are there headshops still open?

Up the road in Newry, sir.

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

Comments