Drugs Ruling: Law-making powers are restricted to Oireachtas

A law used to ban a psychoactive substance sold lawfully in headshops until 2011 has been found unconstitutional.

In what the Court of Appeal said was a “constitutional issue of far-reaching importance”, the three-judge court unanimously said a regulation making illegal the possession of a stimulant called methylethcathinone was invalid.

The court said Section 2 (2) of the 1977 Misuse of Drugs Act, under which the regulation was introduced, was unconstitutional because it purports to vest in the Government law-making powers which are in the exclusive authority of the Oireachtas.