Concerned parents continue to protest against headshops

A SMALL group of people, lead by concerned parents, protested against the continuing operation of headshops, in Ennis last Saturday.

This was the third protest by concerned parents in the town in relation to headshops and both previous protests were better attended.
Meanwhile, up to 4,000 people have signed a petition objecting to the sale of certain substances in headshops and the groups of concerned parents who are lobbying against them say that they will continue to gather more signatories to the petition.
Fine Gael’s Pat Breen has given a cautious welcome to the news this week that the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney is to blacklist certain legal highs which are currently on sale in headshops, as confirmed by way of parliamentary response to Dr James Reilly, Fine Gael’s frontbench spokesperson on health. Deputy Breen has also welcomed the crackdown by garda authorities on the activities of headshops. However, he claims that the Government were very slow to act on this issue and that there were a number of measures which they could have introduced instead of waiting until the end of July when new regulations banning some of these substances will come into effect.
“I welcome the news that Minister Harney has notified the European Commission that certain substances will be banned which are currently on sale in headshops. These include synthetic cannabinoids (SPICE products), benzylpiperazine (BZP) derivatives, mephedrone, methylone and related cathinones, GBL and 1,4 BD. However, in my view, the Government could have introduced a series of measures to deal with this situation instead of waiting until the end of July when these regulations will come into force. After all, many of these products have been outlawed in Nordic countries for quite some time,” he commented.
He suggested that an amendment could have been introduced to the Finance Bill to require headshops to apply for an operating licence.
“To obtain a licence, the fee should have been in the region of €100,000, which would have deterred those involved in headshops from remaining in business. They could also have changed the planning laws, currently headshops can open, without any planning application to the council for a change of use. They should have to apply to the council like everybody else,” Deputy Breen said.