Headshop drugs ban curbs problem usage

A law criminalising the possession or sale of headshop drugs appears to have had the desired effect of reducing usage among young people who had been using in a problematic way, according to a study by researchers at Trinity College Dublin.

The study, So Prohibition Can Work?, looked specifically at the use of “new psychoactive substances” (NPS)/headshop drugs by adolescents attending the Youth Drug and Alcohol outpatient service in Dublin, comparing the six months immediately prior to the ban in May 2010 to the same six-month period the following year.

The average age of the groups studied was 17 and predominantly male.