Dr. Lorraine Nolan:

On the issue of paracetamol products, paracetamol controls exist for an entirely different purpose. Paracetamol is a drug that is very commonly used in suicide, so the retail sale restriction the Deputy experienced in relation to the purchase of paracetamol is designed as a measure to prevent or mitigate that.

I come back to the point that CBD products are foods and this is what they are being sold for. I can understand the limitations of the shop assistant's advice in relation to that. I can understand a request for an alternative but this is why we would always advise anybody suffering from pain that the best source of guidance on controlling pain is from a qualified healthcare professional.

On the head shops, it depends on the nature of the substance being sold. I will speak on this with a little bit more generality. If the substance being sold in the head shop is included under the Misuse of Drugs Act, or is a derivative in relation to that, the enforcement action comes from An Garda Síochána in that context.

This comes down to the question of whether the substance in question can be considered medicinal or whether it is something that can be used in medicine and is considered to be pharmacologically active, and if it is an unauthorised medicine that is being sold. It then comes down to the question of whether some medicines can be sold in general retail outlets, in the case of common analgesics being sold in retailers, for example, and the Deputy mentioned Calpol. Head shops can sell medicines that would fall into this characterisation, but anything that would warrant prescription control purely should not be sold in them and this is the focus of our enforcement work.