Woman fined €15,000 for selling head shop drug

The former Funky Skunk proprietor in Cork who paid 150 Canadian dollars (€98) for a psychoactive drug and packaged it for sale in packets with a total retail price of over €30,000, was convicted and fined €15,000 yesterday and bound to the peace for three years.

Helen Stone, who pleaded to the offence of having the drug for sale, now has a number of shops but is no longer involved in the running of The Funky Skunk on 6 Lavitt’s Quay in Cork, not far from the Bridewell Garda Station.

Detective Sergeant Lar O’Brien testified yesterday that he visited the shop on Apr 14, 2011, and found 950 sachets containing various measures of Salvinorin A for sale, with prices varying from €20 to €60, depending on the quantity.

The psychoactive drug, taken by smoking it, was labelled by Stone as incense.

Blaise O’Carroll, defending, said that at the time when she purchased it openly over the internet, it was not illegal to do so.

It was after the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 that the material became illegal to sell.

Initially, Stone pleaded not guilty to the charge. When a legal argument in the course of her trial proved unsuccessful, she changed her plea to one of guilty to having the drug for sale or supply contrary to the 2010 act.

Commenting on the purchase of the material over the internet, Mr O’Carroll said: “It was brought into the country in a natural and normal way.

“She is most anxious to remain on the right side of the law.”

Mr O’Carroll said she was a good employer for a number of people in her four shops.

Judge Donagh McDonagh said it was the first case of its kind with which he had dealt.

“This hallucinogenic substance was a broadly legal substance when purchased but that changed.

“There may have been a bit of camouflaging of whether it was to be used for human consumption or for incense.

“I think it is fair to say Ms Stone has met the case reasonably fairly,” the judge said.

Judge McDonagh gave Stone six months to pay the €15,000 fine or she will have to serve six months in default of payment.