Psychoactive bill will become (psycho) active from monday

Hammered hippie

As of 0:00 monday the 23rd of august the psycho active substances bill will become active as decided by our minister for prosecution, D. Ahern.
This bill is so vague that even the gardai don't know how to interpret it, so its effectiveness and implementation will be up to the mood and discretion of the guard that is imposing it.
It is actually not really a law but more a propaganda statement from the government that whatever bothers them in the field of the trade in mind altering substances can instantly be made illegal and branded dangerous. It is the head shop hysteria fuelled by tabloids cast into a 'law' by a spineless coward of a government that prefers to appear tough and further their own carreer than to act in the interest of the people whom they represent.
Since the ban of most legal highs in may A&E deparments have been flooded by people being fed deadly concoctions by the old reliable dealer in the street (http://www.independent.ie/national-news/docs-warn-headshop-ban-has-little-effect-2297957.html) and gang wars have now started to take the lives of innocent people (http://www.herald.ie/opinion/andrew-lynch-ahernrsquos-bluster-has-done-nothing-to-deter-gangs-2273908.html). All of this doesn't bother the government one bit, as long as they can be seen to appease a small group of people they deem more worthy of their democratic rights than the majority that enjoy legal highs.
As this piece of personal propaganda for D. Ahern is supposedly designed to protect the public from 'bad' psychoactive substances we can conclude that the government is telling us that tobacco and alcohol are safe, as they are exempt from the psycho active substances bill. So go out, get drunk, smoke your lungs into tarpits and then come back to sue the government...because they said in a way it was safe to do so...didn't they?

OutlawPete

Ah Bill's alright, sure What About Bob was just a movie.

Overheal

You need unfortunately politicians that are able to look at the big picture. Which in this case they clearly weren't. More worried about covering their liability that wondering how this would actually affect the well-being of Irish society.

But in order to get them to see that bigger picture you need to get them stoned and sit them down to watch the Matrix. Good luck with that.

Archeron

Welcome to the Republic of Joe Duffy listeners.

Collie D

Hammered hippie wrote: »

Since the ban of most legal highs in may A&E deparments have been flooded by people being fed deadly concoctions by the old reliable dealer in the street and gang wars have now started to take the lives of innocent people.

How can you talk about tabloid media frenzies and then come out with a line like that in the next sentence?

Overheal

Collie D wrote: »

How can you talk aboit tabloid media frenzies and then come out with a line like that in the next sentence?

Because instead of purchasing safer alternatives in Head Shops, people are back to drug dealers, that sell them even more highly questionable substances, that is landing people in hospital.

Any questions?

Collie D

Overheal wrote: »

Because instead of purchasing safer alternatives in Head Shops, people are back to drug dealers, that sell them even more highly questionable substances, that is landing people in hospital.

Any questions?

Yes, I'd like to see some figures. Hardly a fact. And gang wars have started taking the lives of innocent people?

Any answers?

Kurtosis

Hammered hippie wrote: »

Since the ban of most legal highs in may A&E deparments have been flooded by people being fed deadly concoctions by the old reliable dealer in the street

Damn evil dealers feeding people drugs against their will.

Hammered hippie

@Collie D.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/docs-warn-headshop-ban-has-little-effect-2297957.html

Cheers

Hammered hippie

@Collie D.

http://www.herald.ie/opinion/andrew-lynch-ahernrsquos-bluster-has-done-nothing-to-deter-gangs-2273908.html

Hammered hippie

Silenceeeee.......

Elevator

hammered hippy I think you'll find that most of those in a&e since the last banning were in cos of horrible experiences on that naphyrone ****e!! we can give out about the headshops for selling it for a bit til it was quite obvious the drug isn't safe but it sure did make mephadrone look so appealing compared to it!!

what drives me crazy is ya can't buy an e without it containig only banned head shop drugs so it has done nothing to stem the supply to the same poeple and the wider market it served

only winners here are the dealers and I for one would love to give ahern a piece of my mind let me tell ya! fcuking incompetent assholes the whole lot of them

PeterIanStaker

of course alcohol is safe, its Fianna Fúckup the (Re)publican party making the laws.

opinion guy

tl;dr.

So headshops are closing then.


Good.

seensensee

Banning psychoactive's outright probably has been a big mistake. The government should have worked with the headshops and come to some arrangement in regulating supply and quality.

I can see where alarmed parents would want to restrict access of research chemicals to their children, it's no longer a case of white doves but more the Ivory wave...

"The coughing got worse with every bump. The two of us made more horrible gagging / coughing sounds than a Russian whooping cough ward from the 1940s. I also should mention here that by now I had started to feel completely insane. People who are too scared to do acid always think that acid will make you feel completely insane but that’s not necessarily true. Acid generally gives you an hilarious world of weird and funny stuff that borders on feeling insane sometimes but it is nothing compared to the really unpleasant insanity that good old Ivory Wave provides its punters."
http://nellnews.com/another-terrible-legal-high-reviewed-by-somebody-who-feels-not-very-well-today-viceland-com.html


The critique is written by an experienced drug user and well worth reading in full. If headshops were selling the above substance then it's no surprise that "something?" had to be done.

120_Minutes

Stupid law brought in by stupid people to appease stupid people.

Prohibition doesn't work. Education and regulation would.

To be honest I'm giving up on this country until such time as the Joe Duffy demographic cease to be the only group that are listened to.

Hammered hippie

I could write down what happens when you down a bottle of whiskey in less than two hours time. It is very very unpleasant, if you survive to tell the tale.
Yet no one thinks that would be reason to close bars and off licences. People will just think it is silly to drink that much that fast.

It is the same with certain head shop stuff...with the big big enormous exception that when complaints arise..head shops self regulate and stop selling certain bits and pieces.
When will off lincenses stop selling hard liquor due to its negative side effects when over dosing.....that's right...never!

If off licences and bars were as responsible as most head shop owners have been there would be sooo much less **** on the streets.

As for that utter fool d ahern. I have seen drug dealers dancing for joy outside my local head shop when they heard the news of this new law.
That's right folks....d ahern makes drug dealers dance for joy. The man himself made things 1000% better for drug dealers over the last 12 months. Minister? ...my arse!...for justice?...**** off d ahern!

Yag reuoY

There is a paradoxical benifit to Ireland's utter ****ness on pretty much every level: I won't miss it when I leave later this year. :pac:

This has nothing to do with drugs per se, just a general statement of how much I hate the country and its people.

seensensee

Hammered hippie wrote: »

I could write down what happens when you down a bottle of whiskey in less than two hours time. It is very very unpleasant, if you survive to tell the tale.
Yet no one thinks that would be reason to close bars and off licences. People will just think it is silly to drink that much that fast.

It is the same with certain head shop stuff...with the big big enormous exception that when complaints arise..head shops self regulate and stop selling certain bits and pieces.
When will off lincenses stop selling hard liquor due to its negative side effects when over dosing.....that's right...never!

If off licences and bars were as responsible as most head shop owners have been there would be sooo much less **** on the streets.

As for that utter fool d ahern. I have seen drug dealers dancing for joy outside my local head shop when they heard the news of this new law.
That's right folks....d ahern makes drug dealers dance for joy. The man himself made things 1000% better for drug dealers over the last 12 months. Minister? ...my arse!...for justice?...**** off d ahern!

Yes it appears that things are getting better for Hard Drug dealers with the new legislation, is it a coincidence that while headshops were open and cash was diverted from dealers that the age of heroin users plummeted...

Eight year olds starting to use heroin

By Jennifer Hough
Monday, May 17, 2010
CHILDREN as young as eight years are starting to use drugs as experts warn of a dangerous trend of younger addicts showing signs of increasingly more violent behaviour.




The Matt Talbot Adolescent Service in Cork said trends showed the onset of drug use for young people had dramatically lowered – from the age of 12 in 2006 to the age of eight this year.

Young people referred to the services, which caters for 14-23 year olds, are increasingly smoking heroin, using prescription drugs and carrying weapons to defend themselves against drug dealers to whom they owed money.

Strong evidence gathered by MTAS shows that combined benzodiazepines, such as Valium or Xanax, cocaine, and alcohol use correlated with repeated violent criminal behaviour.


Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/home/eight-year-olds-starting-to-use-heroin-120011.html#ixzz0xMkvcy4l

Kurtosis

seensensee wrote: »

Yes it appears that things are getting better for Hard Drug dealers with the new legislation, is it a coincidence that while headshops were open and cash was diverted from dealers that the age of heroin users plummeted...

Eight year olds starting to use heroin

By Jennifer Hough
Monday, May 17, 2010
CHILDREN as young as eight years are starting to use drugs as experts warn of a dangerous trend of younger addicts showing signs of increasingly more violent behaviour.

The Matt Talbot Adolescent Service in Cork said trends showed the onset of drug use for young people had dramatically lowered – from the age of 12 in 2006 to the age of eight this year.

Of all the ridiculous things posted in these headshop-related threads, I think this is my favourite.

I like how your little preamble does a Daily Mail-worthy job of sensationalising a supposed link between the new anti-headshop measures and hard drugs in kids.

Reading further though, I see that the age of use has dropped from 12 in 2006 to 8 this year. Pretty shocking. Of course this would be due to anti-headshop laws...well, or the countless number of other changes that have occurred in cities in this country in the last four years.

But it gets better. Hmmm, maybe these new laws could have perhaps had some tiny little impact? Oh wait, this article was published on May 17th. The law banning a number of chemicals found in headshop products was published on May 12th. Now come on, even if you're on headshop drugs it'd still be tough to try to suggest that one caused the other. It would make more sense to try and link the popularity of headshops with the drop in age of heroin users!

I know myself and many others do not fully agree with these new measures, but when this is the kind of stuff that opponents of these laws come out with...

Hammered hippie

@penguin88
Lets go for a stroll in certain parts of Dublin north shall we?
No bullet proof vests, though!

Kurtosis

Hammered hippie wrote: »

@penguin88
Lets go for a stroll in certain parts of Dublin north shall we?
No bullet proof vests, though!

Wait, what?

seensensee

It's not the daily mail, but the Irish Examiner which quotes a drug treatment centre. My take on the article is that heroin dealers felt the pinch when headshops were trading and as a result even eight year old children were exposed to and supplied heroin.

Though I must admit it is a rather pedantic and narrow view of what is a massive problem all over Ireland which being that heroin is available everywhere.
So much for winning the drug war...


"Over the past two years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of heroin addicts using the drug intravenously. That wouldn’t be unique to Limerick, it shows the progression... in the use of heroin from smoking to intravenous use. It is a matter of great concern to us."

Supt O’Brien said the increased use of heroin has had a huge impact on crime, with addicts resorting to robbery to fund their habit.

"It feeds into all that sort of crime: burglaries, shop lifting, theft from cars, handbag snatching,"

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.ie/ireland/city-sees-destructive-surge-in-heroin-use-127402.html#ixzz0xNFzJKQq

So, what is the situation now? head shops closed, a legitimate controllable supplier of recreational drugs will be replaced by what??? Would it be the existing illegal networks one asks, the very ones who will supply kids with heroin?
It's no stretch of the imagination to say that illegal drug suppliers will see a jump in profits.
Who benefits?
The head shops were not ideal but could have been regulated.

I think these guys have the right idea...
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php

connexion

I just walked past Nirvana on Clanbrassil st.

Big sign upfront .... "Nirvana closed until further notice."

Kurtosis

seensensee wrote: »

It's not the daily mail, but the Irish Examiner which quotes a drug treatment centre. My take on the article is that heroin dealers felt the pinch when headshops were trading and as a result even eight year old children were exposed to and supplied heroin.

Though I must admit it is a rather pedantic and narrow view of what is a massive problem all over Ireland which being that heroin is available everywhere.
So much for winning the drug war...


"Over the past two years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of heroin addicts using the drug intravenously. That wouldn’t be unique to Limerick, it shows the progression... in the use of heroin from smoking to intravenous use. It is a matter of great concern to us."

So following on from your theory then, should we not see fewer kids being exposed to heroin and a drop in heroin numbers now that the headshops are gone?

Our man in Havana

2 mins to go.

IvySlayer

Well done Government.

Drugs which are less dangerous than alcohol are now being banned. Jobs lost. Tax income, lost. Drugs dealers are now going to have even more customers. Well done indeed.

If only Joe Duffy and co can look past their blind ignorance.

beagle001

They got too greedy and thought they were above regulation,if they kept it to the smoke all would have been grand but selling the class A alternatives closed the door on the industry with the negative effects and media hype.
Its a shame as only alternative for people is back to the dealers and a risk of prosecution plus the loss of hundreds of jobs and lost tax revenue.
Typical of this bunch of clowns in Govt to rush in and shut the whole operation down without any vision,they have not a clue what is happening in Ireland.

P_1

Well done government. Jobs lost, dealers back in business.

Whatever happened to personal choice?

Joke of a country.

Kurtosis

IvySlayer wrote: »

Drugs which are less dangerous than alcohol are now being banned.

Must have missed those studies. Could you point me in the right direction if you have any evidence for this?

seensensee

The theory says that by closing head shops and ensuring all recreational drugs are illegal ensures that only illegal drug suppliers will service the nations recreational drug demand, the dealers have just became more popular and rewarded as a result of government legislation.
The dealers now have a greater influence in communities and they also have heroin for sale. If some one has money to spend on drugs now the only source is to go to the dealer.