A SECOND order banning a further range of head shop drugs is due to be brought in by early autumn, the Irish Examiner understands.

PEOPLE are being treated solely for an addiction to legal drugs on sale in alternative lifestyle shops, the head of the addictions unit at St John of God’s hospital has said.

A new body representing head shop owners is drawing up a code of conduct for the sale of legal highs.

THE National Poisons Information Centre has experienced a surge in calls from emergency departments relating to legal highs on sale in head shops.

STUDENTS who allowed footage of their behaviour while they were under the influence of legal highs to be shown to their school were “brave and generous”, their school principal said.

GARDAÍ may prosecute head shop owners if it can be proved that their products, sold as legal highs, cause injury.

THE Government is drawing up laws to ban “legal high” products on sale in head shops throughout the country.

THE Government’s drug advisory body has recommended an entire range of synthetic cannabis chemicals sold in head shops be banned.

GARDAÍ seized a total of 300,000 BZP tablets in 2009, at a time when the overall illegal drug market contracted sharply.

BANNING synthetic legal drugs, on sale in alternative lifestyle shops, is a mistake and will simply create another layer to the illegal drugs trade, Fianna Fáil TD Jim McDaid has claimed.

Customs officers in Cork have seized a range of products believed to contain the banned drug BZP after a raid on a head shop in the city.

BANNING legal drugs on sale in alternative lifestyle shops will only serve criminal drug dealers and push the market underground, warned the director of Irish Head Shop Enterprises.

THE Minister for Drugs has signalled he will use legislation to curb the sale of legal drugs currently being sold in alternative lifestyle shops.

The drugs minister today demanded immediate action to ban legal highs being sold in so-called “head shops”.

DRUGS experts and frontline workers are set to present the Government with a detailed submission outlining concerns about shops which are selling legal forms of drugs.

‘HEAD’ stores selling legal alternatives to mind-altering drugs could be closed down next year under laws being considered by the Government.

More than 150,000 so-called party pills have been seized by the drugs squad, gardaí said today.

IRELAND is the third largest seller of “designer drugs” over the internet in Europe, according to the EU drugs agency.

A teenager charged in connection with a seizure of €1m worth of drugs in Finglas in Dublin in June has been remanded in custody pending his trial.

Gardaí in Dublin have arrested two people following a large seizure of the party drug BZP in the north of the city yesterday.

Alcohol was officially recognised by the Government today as a gateway drug that can lead users to other addictive substances.

The stimulant drug BZP which is promoted as a legal alternative to ecstasy and amphetamines was banned today by the Government.

THE Government is set to ban a drug found in “legal high” substances.

THE HSE has failed to implement an EU Council decision in March urging member states to ban a legal ecstasy pill.

IRELAND will have to ban a party drug legally on sale here following an EU decision yesterday.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has said she has no plans to ban herbal ecstasy, despite concerns being raised about the pills, which produce a so-called legal high.

THE EU wants to ban BZP, the synthetic drug that is up to 20 times more powerful than speed and associated with deaths worldwide.

LEGAL alternatives to hard drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms could soon be taken off the shelves.

A CLASS A drug which is banned in the US is being sold legally in shops in Dublin, as an alternative to ecstasy and cocaine.