Drugs Ruling: Immediate action being taken to close drug loophole after ruling
Mr Varadkar confirmed the situation yesterday at a hastily-arranged press conference in response to a controversial Court of Appeal ruling to overturn bans on the products.
Under section 2(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act,1977, every government over the past 38 years has been able to ban substances it believes are “harmful to human health” as they could cause “death or disability”.
In that time, ministerial orders have been issued on nine occasions to outlaw the sale, supply, importation, exportation, possession and use of drugs such as ecstasy, crystal meth, magic mushrooms, ketamine, and headshop highs.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Varadkar confirmed that after a Court of Appeal decision yesterday morning, it has been decided these orders are unconstitutional as the decisions were made without putting them before the Oireachtas — meaning that the bans have been scrapped.
While insisting action is being taken to immediately close the legal loophole, he admitted this means that right now, nobody can be arrested for possessing or taking these drugs.
“It would not be illegal to possess it, it would be illegal to supply it. Possession is not an offence at this moment in time,” he confirmed.
Mr Varadkar said the Government has been aware of the potential problem since a previous High Court ruling late last year on the appeal case decided on yesterday, and has already drawn up the necessary bill to outlaw the drugs again.
He said the emergency legislation will pass through the Seanad today after going before the Dáil last night, with a more extensive law to be passed later this year.
“It is still the case that the sale, supply, import or export of such substances remains illegal even today, but what we are doing now is bringing forward emergency legislation to ban the possession of any drugs that have been banned since 1977. Obviously you can never predict the outcome of a court case, but we drafted legislation some months ago and it was approved in January in anticipation [of yesterday’s ruling],” he said.
Mr Varadkar said a decision to appeal thedecision to the Supreme Court is “under consideration” but stressed it was not an option to wait until then because “there is no stay [on the ruling] we cannot allow a situation where we do nothing”.
When asked how previous or existing drug charges could be affected, he admitted “dozens” of cases could now be quashed.
However, he stressed that in “anticipation” of the legal difficulty, individuals have in recent months been charged under a number of laws instead of just the section in question, meaning the cases will not fall.
