Lisa McDonald (Fianna Fail)

The Minister described the legislation as robust, innovative and urgent, and he is right. That the British Home Secretary, Ms Theresa May, has expressed an interest in looking at our model of dealing with the problem is a compliment to the Minister and to his staff. They have dealt in an imaginative way with the problems we have encountered in the past year in trying to come to terms with this menace to our society.

We had a very good debate in the Senate some time ago on this matter, and the menace caused by head shops was robustly discussed on that occasion. The word "head shop" conjures up different images to people and most ordinary Irish citizens learned about these head shops through programmes like "Liveline" and did not really know what they were about. For example, there was such a shop in Wexford called "The Stone Zone" and I passed it many times before I realised what it was. This menace hit us before we knew what it was and it was underground for a long time.

One would wonder about the role of the local authorities in stopping the proliferation of these head shops, and whether they could be considered a dangerous use. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government should look at this issue, in conjunction with the multi-pronged approach that has been taken by the various Departments in dealing with this matter.

This is a strong Bill, banning the sale, supply, export and illegal importation of psychoactive substances, without giving a definition similar to that used in the Misuse of Drugs Acts. It deals with things like bath salts that are sold in a glittery package or plant food that is clearly for human consumption. The catch-all manner in which the legislation is framed is excellent and it will assist the Garda and the courts in dealing with this matter.

The clever tool of using the prohibition notice and the prohibition order, with the balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt as the burden of proof, is also an imaginative way in which we can readily close head shops. These substances are also on sale in other shops, such as Chinese medicine stores and sex shops. I hope we will not see a proliferation of them as a result of this but the legislation is far reaching and wide enough to capture the next move being considered. The fact that the people involved consider their next moves was clearly shown, as Senator Regan stated, after an order was made by the Minister for Health and Children on 11 May to make illegal the possession and sale of certain substances such as snow and methadrone. We saw the immediate closure of head shops but 33 of them reopened the following week. This showed how difficult it is to be ahead of the curve on this issue. Given how it is being dealt with in the Bill, once it is passed we will be ahead of the curve and I hope we will see no more of these counter-culture shops.

We need to be mindful that experience shows that by and large when one tells children not to do something, they will do it. From speaking to teenagers who took legal highs I got the impression that they felt justified in taking them because they were legal. According to the teachers of these students, they would come into school on Monday mornings with their brains fried and they could not deal with it. They could see a deterioration in their students over a period.

I welcome the Minister's statement that the national drugs awareness campaign will step up a gear. We will no longer be able to bandy about the phrase "legal highs" because substances having a psychoactive affect will be illegal. Experience has shown that new substances can quickly emerge on to the market but the Bill will control how we deal with these products as they emerge. It contains the flexibility we need to tackle a market as slippery as it is wrong.

The use of Whack is very frightening and leads to a range of symptoms which affect the heart and breathing rates and cause raised blood pressure. GPs have described the level of anxiety in at least seven cases as psychotic episodes. This is widely known by those of us who have studied the effects of head shop products. For younger people who merely consider them as legal highs this message has not yet got through. It is hoped that through a good education campaign people will take personal responsibility. Recently, with regard to alcohol we have seen that the more we campaign and educate young people the more they are inclined to take an informed decision and be personally responsible.

On occasion in recent months, there have been queues of several hundred people outside head shops on Saturday nights. Certain politicians have called for head shops to be regulated. However, society is not at a point where they can be regulated and licensed to allow people make their own decisions. These products are dangerous and we do not have enough information on their effects to regulate or licence them. Accident and emergency consultants speak about children and young males in their mid twenties taking psychoactive substances at parties and having their brains fried. There is a very strong societal need for this Bill. It is madness to call for the legalisation of head shops at present because as a society we are nowhere close to being able to go down that road.

Last week I spoke to a young drug addict who told me he thought head shops were a godsend because he could cheaply obtain legal alternatives to cocaine and ecstasy. The products are far cheaper than black market cocaine and ecstasy. I use the word "addict" quite loosely; some people who take recreational drugs do not consider themselves to be addicts but there is a pattern of regular usage so they are addicts. This what the Bill will stop; when it passes into law we will stop people obtaining cheap alternatives to black market drugs, and people will know the products are not legal. The phrase "legal high" is a misnomer; the products damage people and are dangerous. The Government is quickly moving towards an innovative solution that will probably be examined by other jurisdictions when they deal with the matter.

The Minister has put much thought into the Bill. It will be challenging to implement it. It gives the Garda Síochána and the courts power to close the premises and will make it very difficult for the sellers. The selling of bongs and counter-culture paraphernalia can be used by gardaí to assist in proving that the seller is selling psychoactive products and the courts can close down the relevant store.

We must ask insurance companies why they insured head shops. I believe it has become far more difficult for them to be insured now. The Bill will send a clear message to the parents of children who tell them the products are legally available that they are not. Anything with a psychoactive effect will be considered to be a dangerous substance and will be dealt with as such. In the wider debate, the greatest concern is that if addicts can avail of something freely and easily they will use it and we need to keep such people at the centre of the debate. In passing the Bill into law we will assist such people.

The Minister described the Bill as robust, innovative and urgent, and I agree with him. I thank the Minister for the time he has spent on putting his stamp on the legislation to make it very difficult for this underground industry, and we saw that it is an underground industry when head shops were bombed by feuding gangs. Regardless of how they want to paint themselves, the people involved recklessly provide substances that can cause serious damage and harm to people taking them and to their families. This is a Bill which the community needs and for which it has been crying out in recent months. I commend the Bill to the House and I also commend the urgency and speed with which the Minister's staff brought it to the House.