Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I refer to Senator Bacik's question and her view that surely these are not legal highs in Ireland. It is certain that they should not be. As I said in my opening remarks, I have met with gardaí in my local community to discuss the tragedies that have occurred, the community response and the need to have effective redress. I can report to the joint committees in session here today that one of the most senior gardaí, whom I respect personally, has told me the Garda does not have the legal resourcing to deal with this. It is not only about manpower; the legislation does not do the business. It links a little bit with what Mr. Tim Murphy was saying. These are synthetic cannabinoids. Mr. Murphy made the point that tests came back and the substance did not fit with any of those listed in the legislation. The Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 listed more than 200 so-called legal highs and we have been adding to that year-on-year in the period since. The trick these people use is not to reuse or rehash; it is to mimic. It is a mimicking process, as the Co-Chairman, Deputy David Stanton, has said. They are finding a way to replicate and reproduce the psychoactive experience of the known drug - cannabis or another illegal drug. There are chemists who are investing all of their knowledge and time in this mimicking process.

We must get away from the notion that once we identify something, we can add it to the list. One is always playing catch-up. We have to leapfrog to be ahead of them. We must put the hand up and stop them in their tracks, which requires strong and tough legislation in the first instance and all of the other resourcing that must come also. We need to have the strongest possible legislation and there must be some way to say that any and all of these, no matter what the substance, are illegal unless they are actually provided for and listed as legal. We should work on the basis that they are illegal until they are, for whatever qualifying and acceptable purpose, brought on to a legal list of substances for human use as drugs, medications etc. I am in favour of simply going ahead of them and doing it most effectively. There is no other answer.

When Mr. Packie Kelly and Mr. Tim Murphy respond to Senator van Turnhout and talk about supports, alternative opportunities and different activities within relatively deprived or unprovided-for communities, this is where the risk presents. We must look at that and provide for and reintroduce the necessary supports in order to provide for that community response. That is also imperative.