Backed by apparently damning new scientific findings, there is a move across Europe to outlaw ‘Spice’ and other legal smokes. Will this bring an end to the booming legal high industry – or encourage smokers to look further afield for their chemical buzz?
The authorities seem to be going way beyond the law in their campaign against head shops and sex shops. But because a pleasure-focussed sub-culture is involved, no one gives a damn that the rights of the owners of the shops are being trampled on.
Why the recent record drugs haul off the Irish coast will do little to stem to cocaine tide- and my pose a very real public health risk as dealers move to fill the gap in the market.
Recently the Netherlands government moved to follow the Irish example and ban "magic mushrooms". But pro-civil liberty groups have rallied to stall the planned prohibition.
Convicted traffickers are being put behind bars for far longer than their crimes actually merit. Is this progressive policing - or a miscarriage of justice?
With heroin use spreading beyond Dublin, the country faces a new outbreak of drug addiction. But does the government have the will to tackle the crisis before it spins out of control?
May 10 saw a crowd of several thousand take part in a pro-cannabis rally outside the Dáil. However, political expediency and media scaremongering mean that misinformation about the drug continues to be rife.
The Netherlands has long been a byword for liberalism in relation to cannabis. But the Calvinist attitudes of the current administration there look set to change that.
Dylan is a farmer with a difference – he's a cannabis cultivator. He is squeezed by both criminals and the Gardai. But he aims to put Ireland on the map for quality, organically grown weed.
Following his arrest on drug smuggling charges, Canadian cannabis seed vendor Marc Emery was intent on a showdown with the US legal system. However, he now faces a lengthy jail sentence.
While certain elements of the chattering classes decry cocaine as the devil’s dandruff, precious few have got around to pinpointing the real hazard: badly cut merchandise.
As part of a scam to exaggerate the weight of the cannabis they sell, ruthless Irish criminals are lacing their wares with pieces of glass – thereby putting the health of consumers at serious risk.
Magic mushrooms were banned in Ireland recently, effectively aiming an exocet at the local ‘head’ shop business. But even before the ban, customs officials had been waging a bizarre war against what most people accept was a legal substance – resulting in considerable losses being sustained by shop owners. No wonder some of them are considering going to court to gain redress.
