The issue of head shops remains on the political agenda. It appears one of our District Court Judges was caught in the rather embarrassing situation where a premises he owned, that of his former legal practice, had without his knowledge been been rented to individuals who converted it to a head shop. The Irish Times notes that Judge John Coughlan instructed his auctioneer to reach an agreement with the tenant to vacate the premises.
It is also of interest to note that Customs officers are proving to be pro-active in implementing the available laws against these shops:Meanwhile, Customs officers are to prepare a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions after they raided a head shop in Cork and seized products being sold over the counter at the outlet.
Customs officers searched the shop and its storage premises under warrant last Friday and seized products including Pink Champagne, an amphetamine which, officers believe, contains benzylpiperazine (BZP).
A spokeswoman for the Customs and Excise section of the Revenue Commissioners declined to comment on the matter, other than to confirm that a shop and storage premises in Cork had been searched under warrant
Cork Senator Jerry Buttimer was also speaking on the issue yesterday in the Seanad, the speech is outlined on his website. One point I found of interest from a policy perspective was:Fine Gael has said the planning permission criteria for sex shops should also be applied to head shops.
I would expect such thinking is in line with that of Minister John Curran, currently drawing up a legislative response on this issue. These are the practically minded ideas that focus on the premises themselves rather than the substances they sell which will lead to a crackdown. It is important these solutions are brought into law soon, with each passing week more young lives may tragically go to waste.
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