Irish teens among top users of ecstasy and mushrooms in EU
The EU’s drugs agency also said market stalls in Ireland and Britain, together with so-called ‘smartshops’ in the Netherlands, played a key role in kick-starting a magic mushroom trend in Europe.
It warned that while they have been banned in Ireland since January, dealers are looking for new ways of making them available.
About 5% of Irish 15 to 16-year-olds had used ecstasy, making them the second-highest group in a list of 12 countries. Over 4% claimed to have used hallucinogenic mushrooms, putting them third-highest in the study conducted three years ago.
One-fifth of the students questioned said the mushrooms were easy to get. One report quoted locals in Co Kilkenny saying that when they were in season people would hunt them in the wild.
Among 15 to 24-year-olds over 5% had used mushrooms, but the chart-toppers are the Czechs, Dutch, French and Belgians.
In some countries the mushrooms are more frequently used than ecstasy.
More than half of French young people said they had tried the fungi.
The report quoted sources in Britain saying there were more than 300 shops and stalls selling some of the 100 hallucinogenic varieties in shops and stalls in 2004.
The sales were worth an estimated £1.5m (€2.2m) and the British Treasury collected over e£255,000 (€370,000) in tax.
The report was issued to coincide with World No Drugs Day today, with a warning from the EU that drug use and deaths are at unprecedented levels and show little sign of falling.
The inquest is due to be resumed today at the Dublin Country Coroner’s Court in Tallaght into the death of Colm Hodkinson, a 33-year-old man who fell from a fourth-floor apartment in Dun Laoghaire after eating magic mushrooms.
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