Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to speak on the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2015, acknowledging the decision of the Court of Appeal this morning. It is timely for the Minister for Health to have the Bill ready and before us so quickly to deal with the lacuna created.

The decision that certain classes of drugs are legal, which leaves open this loophole which must be closed urgently, is a cause for considerable concern. Most of the drugs that were declared legal due to the lack of primary legislation on the policies and principles underpinning them were available in the head shops which spread throughout the country between 2009 and 2010. They were widespread in my constituency of Dublin Central. I raised the issue on many occasions in 2009 and 2010. There were approximately 14 head shops in Dublin Central, almost all in the inner city. They spread rapidly throughout the country until by the time they were banned, there were approximately 100 and every major town, and some villages had a head shop. They were particularly dangerous because the products mimicked the illegal drugs and had damaging physical and psychological effects on those who consumed or injected them. The drugs appeared very rapidly and were taken by a new generation of young people because they were not perceived as being strictly illegal, although they were unregulated and unlicensed. A young age group began to use them and in many cases became addicted to them.

The head shop phenomenon spread like wildfire as people quickly began to avail of so-called legal highs and many ended up in hospital. Parents were beside themselves with fear for their teenage sons and daughters. There was a real concern that the drug epidemic of heroin and cocaine that had destroyed a generation of young people in the 1980s and early 1990s in the flat complexes throughout the city could be replicated by the unlicensed and unregulated activity and that a new generation would be their victims.

The then Government did not respond very urgently. It was at least 18 months before the then Minister for Health, Mary Harney, moved to introduce a statutory instrument to criminalise these products. During that period they had become a serious threat to young people to such an extent that some sinister elements began to appear.

At least seven head shops were severely damaged, largely through arson, and two were burned down in my constituency. Eventually, the Government of the day did take action and introduced the necessary legislation to ban the substances. It is welcome that the Minister has acted so promptly in incorporating the list of prohibited substances into primary legislation but it is a major concern that in future, as new and potentially dangerous substances are developed and become available, the Minister may not have the facility of the statutory instrument to move quickly to ensure they are prohibited. Instead, primary legislation may have to be passed each time a new drug becomes a problem and that is the real threat. Because new substances can evolve very quickly simply by putting new compounds together, we need a sense of urgency incorporated into our legislative capacity. At present that exists under statutory instrument but if we require primary legislation each time a new compound comes into existence we could be in serious trouble.

I very much welcome the urgency with which the Minister has acted and how expeditiously he has responded but we need to look at the issue in a broader context and we need a new drugs strategy to come to terms with the growing popularity of prescription and non-prescription drugs that are in existence currently

See this speech in context