Legal Highs go underground
Legal Highs go
underground
Last week we reported in the paper that the head shop [The Stone Zone] based in Pugin Court on Michael’s Road in the town was to close.
While technically this was the case, the availability of the legal highs being sold in the store remains. A delivery service akin to a pizza or Chinese takeaway business is now in operation from the owner’s Wexford store.
All you need to do is text your order to the number posted on the closed front door of the shop and hey presto – you have your drugs delivered to your door.
While there was a broad welcoming of the closure of the store around Gorey last week, at a poorly attended meeting organised by the School Completion Programme in the Ashdown Park Hotel on Thursday night last, a HSE drugs officer warned about the lack of a public face on these head shops.
Susan Barnes, Drugs Education Officer, told the thirty or so parents who attended that the closure of the head shop may not be such good news. The sale of these legal highs has gone underground and only a mobile phone, which you cannot call, remains.
Ms. Barnes said by pushing these operators underground, the size and scale of the problem will not be known. It was easy for anyone to gauge the size of the problem previously by watching the shop for a while and noting how many people went in and out. This is no longer possible.
While the government is set on introducing legislation to curtail the operation of these shops, as Ms. Barnes pointed out, the people behind manufacturing these drugs have employed some of the world’s brightest minds.
From scientists to marketing gurus, the people who create the legal highs have consistently been one step ahead of the law makers in this and every other country. The government initially looked at banned certain products but this was attempted in the UK previously and the manufacturers had five replacement products ready to replace the banned one immediately.
All they need to do was change the active ingredient slightly and they circumvented the legislation.
The reason the head shop in Gorey closed its doors was because no insurance company in Ireland would cover Pugin Court while such a shop was operating from that location.
This may be an avenue other landlords could go down in their attempts to close the head shops but whatever they do it will not get away from the fact that there is a demand for these products.
The fact the owners have offered a delivery system to get their products to the people of Gorey is a clear indication of the amount of business they were doing while they were open. It is only a matter of time that another of these shops open in the town if there is such a demand.
Unfortunately the meeting last week was poorly attended as it is by informing and educating yourself about exactly what these drugs can do to you, can the problem begin to be solved.
Children are very susceptible as they see these shops openly selling the products legally and they believe they cannot do any harm.
Susan Barnes said the most important fact that parents needed to tell their children is that legal does not mean safe. This however is a hard message to get across.
The children no longer have any fear about these drugs as they were not illegal one parent told the meeting last week. This is a worrying fact and one that could see these products do some serious damage to the young people of Gorey before the government figure out a way of curtailing their sale.
Yellowbelly Blog 
No trackbacks yet.