Ireland’s estimated 90 head shop owners woke up to bad news on Tuesday March 2, when it was revealed that the Government here has notified the EU of its plans to ban a range of legal highs that includes mephedrone, methylone and related cathinones, GBL and 1,4BD which are also known as ‘liquid ecstasy’ as well as ketamine, tapentadol, BZP ‘party pill’ derivatives and synthetic cannabinoids of which Spice is the brand leader here.

The three-month notice period duly completed, all of the aforementioned substances will become illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act at the start of June.
“At a rough guess, I’d say that the ‘to be banned’ list accounts for about 60% of our current stock,” a head shop owner, who asked not to be identified, tells Hot Press. “GBL/1,4BD is a strange one because I don’t know of anybody here that stocks it – there is a substance being sold under the ‘liquid ecstasy’ brand name, but it’s not what the media delight in misleadingly calling ‘the date rape drug’. GBL is actually a common ingredient in paint thinner, so that’s going to be interesting for the decorating trade!
“Tapentadol is another substance I’ve never come across in head shops, which makes me think that the Government are trying to future-proof against it being used as a replacement for the other substances they’re banning.”
Although describing the general mood of Irish head shop owners as “pessimistic”, our source believes that the industry here still has a future.
“Take mephedrone, party pills and the likes of Spice off the shelves, and I don’t think there will be enough business to sustain the number of head shops you’ve got at present – especially in rural areas where you haven’t got the population base,” he proffers. “I suspect we’ll go back to the pre-2008 level of having 30 or 40 shops which, if they’ve any sense, will stop all this selling through hatches at three in the morning and home delivery palaver. It’s that sort of behaviour, which has got us into the mess we’re in now.”
Are there new legal highs that circumnavigate the new legislation waiting to be launched onto the Irish market?
“Like for like replacements? No, too many loopholes have been closed for that, I suspect, but there are some new products I’m aware of, yeah,” he concludes. “Whether they’ll have the same commercial appeal as what’s being banned, I don’t know.”
While the legal highs industry tries to work out “what next?”, they continue to make banner headlines around the country, with Highland Radio reporting on head shops in Letterkenny and Donegal being broken into, and €8,000 worth of stock being taken; the Cork Independent interviewing a Sinn Fein councilor about plans to picket the Bright Side shop in Washington Street; and the Roscommon Champion carrying its weekly advertorial – well, that’s how it reads to some of us – for the Roscommon Anti-Head Shop Group, who appealed for people to help them maintain their vigil outside High Times in Castle Street in Roscommon Town.
Not to be outdone, its rival the Roscommon People contained a plug for the fund-raising table-quiz the Anti-Head Shop Group is running on March 19 in J.J.’s Bar. Oh, the delicious irony!
“All of which means that, very soon, people will be back to buying illegal drugs in far greater quantities,” another source comments. “Which is great for the organised criminal gangs. Sometimes you think that’s what the Government wants.”
Indeed.