Ireland third largest ‘designer drug’ seller on net
These “legal highs” contain untested and sometimes highly potent chemicals designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs, such as cannabis and ecstasy.
They are sold not only online by retailers, but also in so-called headshops throughout the country.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has called for urgent action on a rapidly expanding market.
Launching a range of reports in Brussels yesterday, the drugs agency also said:
* Ireland imposes the longest prison sentences for drugs offences in the EU.
* Ireland has the fifth highest rate of drug-related deaths per capita.
Agency director Wolfgang Gotz said new designer drugs include party pills containing legal alternatives to the now-banned substance BZP and a range of herbal smoking blends under the ‘Spice’ brand.
EMCDDA expert Paul Griffiths said synthetic cannabis chemicals – the first of their type – have been found in Spice products.
“People think they are buying a mixture of herbs, but some contain synthetic cannabinoids. Some of these are highly potent and are active in small doses.”
The agency surveyed 115 online stores based in the EU in 2009. Half of these, across 14 countries, sold Spice products.
Britain accounted for 42% of the stores, followed by Romania, 15%, and Ireland, 7%.
The agency said Spice is also sold in Ireland under the names of Smoke, Sense and Chill X and lists two websites which sells them online.
The Health Research Board (HRB) in Ireland – which supplies national reports to the EMCDDA – confirmed “all of these products” were available in headshops or could be bought from Irish online retailers.
The HRB said other chemical stimulants from the shrub Khat are sold online and from head shops.
It also said there were 12 seizures of a mood altering substance called mCPP in Ireland in 2008. The EMCCDA said this legal substance was increasingly replacing MDMA, the traditional chemical in ecstasy tablets.
