About time these head shops were put out of business

send the stuff underground, ya, great job...ffs

these so called "head shops" have no place in civil society.
i am delighted with the decision.
should have happened months ago

Who wants hundreds of millions of euro in tax brought in, an end to gangland shootings, reduced drug deaths, massively reduced State spending on law enforcement. Who wants that?

Criminalise everything I say. As one clever woman said on Liveline earlier on the subject of the head shops closing, "I'm off to the pub to celebrate".

If Joe Duffy had not shown such an interest in these head shops would this law have been pushed thru so quick?? I think not, people are always goin to take drugs so why not regulate.

That young mangeress in Newbridge will be out of a job boo hoo

Ye but it will be great to see the dundons and fat freddie profit from this. How many head shop owners are violent criminals who kill anyone who gets in there way? This is who now owns head shops cause the stuff isnt goin to just go away.

whatever the pros and cons of this, there is no way the criminal gangs would have been put out of business.

they would have burned the shops down or diversified but no way would they be retiring to cheap apartments in Mullingar with "Best of luck to ye lads" on their lips.

drug dealing sc umbags will rejoice.

oldbean is right. a great day fro the hardened criminals.
they should join that lady in the pub in newbridge for a
celebratory drink!!..they will now have a new range of drugs to sell to our kids..

The problem is not the head shops . Facts are head shops sold imitation amphetamine drugs that are not the same as xtc/cocaine/speed the usual street 'social' drugs. Some of them are actually stronger. All these drugs are dangerous when taken wrong and that usually means by mixing with alcohol.
    The imitation cannabis is nothing like cannabis and was more expensive by about 30% or so, about the same amount as the tax paid on it for pretty poor quality stuff.

What it did mean was taking the risk out of buying and taking away the risk of people being offered harder drugs by street dealers.

Drugs will always be a viable market and the government will always make a fortune by making it illegal, this is FACT  but time after time the general public and the 50 year old mother will buy into the media bullsh1t. If somebody jumps off a building whilst high is that the drugs fault? many of these recent deaths the victim was drinking alcohol. Perhaps the guy who jumped off the building to his death was simply suicidal.

Drugs need to be legalized and controlled by people who know what they are doing, cannabis especially needs to be taken out of the same bracket as the amphetamines.

The drug policies do not work for society.

Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.

Education is key and a move into the 21st century has to eb made by the Irish government otherwise don't moan about your old age relatives being mugged or somebody you know being killed, it's all part of the system yous support after all. Sure why not sit down and watch the endless crap on rte about past Irish gang lords and the likes.

Legalize the weed / Reclaim the streets / Wake up!

well said zipifried2!

Stupid by the goverment IMO

only going to drive people back to drug dealers

In all fairness if you were buying a packet of smoke out of the head shop at least you know what is in it while buying hash/weed of a dealer with rubber/plastic etc in the smoke

Anyone who had any bad experiences or went mad while taking stuff from head shops that i have seen in newspapers or documentrys should never in the first place  have been taking drugs as they were not have the mental state to do so.

Pish poor by the gov

I'm not sure anybody in the media or Government knows what they're talking about as it was widely reported today that selling "hallucinogenics" was being banned. Which clearly is wrong.

as bill hicks said about someone on drugs who fell to his death. if he thought he could fly why not take off from the ground first.

In all fairness if you were buying a packet of smoke out of the head shop at least you know what is in it while buying hash/weed of a dealer with rubber/plastic etc in the smoke

I have a friend who is a psychiatrist dealing primarily with addiction. She and her colleagues were advising their addicts not to buy gear from the headshops but to use their usual dealers as the drugs sold in the headshops were too strong and the gear on the street is weak in comparison.

I don't know what the answer is but my belief is easy acquisition will encourage more kids to try and for me that can't be a good thing