Dan Boyle (Green Party)

This is an interesting debate. There is a great deal of agreement about the dangers that exist and the need for regulation. Even Senator Norris's contribution points to the necessity of considering a drugs policy that is proactive as well as reactive.

The danger of head shops has been highlighted in many contributions to the debate. One reason we should be grateful to them is that they show the state of technology at present and the type of products that can be produced for sale. In terms of drug use, synthetic drugs are often the most pernicious. Regulation is the way to proceed, whether in a proactive way as described by Senator Regan, or in a reactive way, where we try to identify each substance as it is created and assess whether it causes difficulty and should be properly prescribed. I tend to agree with Senator Regan that we adopt the precautionary principle.

However, even if head shops disappeared tomorrow, the problems we have due to drug use in society would not disappear. A wide ranging drug policy must address the fact that drug use is prevalent in our society. Whether it exists in the form of counter-culture shops such as the head shops or it exists underground, there is a responsibility to deal with the wider issue. Outside of what has already been said about education, inspiring a drug-free lifestyle, bodily integrity and the need for awareness about the effects of particular substances, we most particularly must make young people aware of the dangers of poly-drug use, which is one of the most dangerous activities one can undertake. When one is young, one feels indestructible and that one can pop pills, ingest drugs by way of smoking and drink alcohol without being affected in any way. The reality is that the effects are all too obvious. Senators talked about the effects on individuals, including injury and sometimes death. Memory, personality and behaviour can be affected.

If drug use, which is becoming more prevalent, involves taking a cocktail of substances, which substances change regularly, trying to control it presents a problem. Perhaps the value of the head shops is that they let us know what substances exist and that there is easy access to them. There is a responsibility on legislators to ensure they are properly proscribed.

The combating of drug use at a wider level must be addressed by the Government. The chief ingredient in the cocktail of drugs taken by young poly-drug users remains alcohol. We need a policy that measures its effects properly. I am not too sure the voluntary code of practice for alcohol providers is sufficient. The counter-culture marketing that head shops try to employ is used in respect of alcohol such as alcopops. Their consumption is regarded as unique to young people and as differentiating them from society at large. Marketing suggests they will be allowed to cock a snoot at authority, pretend to be rebel and make a difference. The reality is that young people led down that line are doing nothing of the sort; they are undermining their own capabilities and compromising their futures. Tackling the problem in a way that allows us, as responsible legislators, to encourage alternative behaviour very often leads young people to behave as they behave with parents, that is, by doing the exact opposite of what is desired of them. It is a difficult balance for us to strike. I do not envy the Minister of State in his role in determining Government policy in this area.

We need to determine how we will deal with the legal drugs and the illegal drugs, be they soft or hard, and what we will do about prescription drug addictions. The real problem we face in this debate is that synthetic drugs have too great an influence on the lives of young people. Their manufacture and sale must be regulated. We must decide whether this should be done through existing agencies such as the Irish Medicines Board and whether there is a role for local task forces or a need to provide resources to address this problem, which is becoming very big indeed.

This debate was instigated by the Government Whip, Senator Wilson, who has experienced the problems under discussion in his home town, Cavan. That drugs are being taken among populations far smaller than those in the major cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway means there is a very real problem to be addressed. We all have responsibility to act collectively on this issue.

I hope that as we return to this issue and reflect on how it was articulated in the speech of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, there will be a Government response. We hope the response will have the required short-term effect nationally but we should acknowledge that the battle cannot be won in the shorter term, as the Minister of State will be aware. It cannot be won by any individual Bill and a sustained and long-term strategy is required. Everybody, regardless of his or her views on the wider issue, would accept this line of argument.