While legislation banning all mind-altering drugs is just days away from becoming law, manufacturers of head shop products are still busily churning out new drugs.
With rumblings in Garda circles that the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Bill 2010 may not be straightforward to implement, it is not clear when, and to what extent, the law will be enforced.
Ministers have already predicted wealthy head shops owners will challenge the law in the courts, possibly hampering implementation even more.
Garda sources say many of the head shops that have remained open after the ban – 44 out of an original 102 shops – are adopting a "wait and see" approach.
The trade could, they suggest, shift online, with some sites, including ones based in Dublin, offering a delivery service.
In the meantime, new chemicals continue to reach the cabinets of head shops here, replacing the popular products banned on May 11.
Researchers at the Department of Pharmacology at Trinity College Dublin have been working literally around the clock over the last three months in the painstaking task of identifying what exactly is being sold in head shops.
"We have basically condensed a year’s research work into a couple of months," said Dr Pierce Kavanagh, research leader.
As well as identifying the drugs available pre-ban, they have, since the ban, identified some 13 new chemicals, which were not on sale before May 11.
"They are new in that they are new to us, as we are constantly extending our analytical portfolio and as time progresses the range of compounds that we look for is increasing," said Dr Pierce.
The 13 chemicals were found in 38 packets, with often the same substances sold in different packets.
The drugs often contain a number of different chemicals.
These 13 chemicals include:
nNaphyrone – a stimulant replacing mephedrone, found in packets Mind Melt, Pure NRG and Enchanted.
nFluorotropacocaine – a cocaine substitute, found in Star Dust and Whack.
nDimethocaine – a local anaesthetic/stimulant, found in Mind Melt, Amplified, Mint Mania.
nSynephrine – a stimulant like ephedrine, found in Energy, Go-E, Empathy, Bio Happiness, Diablo, Storm, Exotic and Molotov.
Other new chemicals are levodpa, glaucine, ethcathinone, iso-ethcathinone, 5-hydroxtrytophan, desoxypipradrol, am-694, dimethylcathinone and mitragynine.
They also identified four chemicals, on sale before the ban and still being sold.
They were not listed in the ban. They include dimethylamylamine (DMAA) and 2-Phenylethylamine, two chemicals, which between them, were found in more than half of the 38 packets.
Dr Kavanagh said they were also monitoring websites offering what they call "research chemicals" for sale.
"We have observed that MDAT, MDAI, 5-IAI and especially 6-APB (Benzo Fury) are becoming quite popular."
However, the actual availability of Benzo Fury from such websites is unclear and some state the "official launch date" is the beginning of August.
He said their analysis had thrown up a large number of mysterious or "unknown" substances.
"A number of products we’re seeing now we haven’t see before – nor have other any laboratories – so, we’re left with what we call unknowns," he said.
"These unknowns could be deliberately incorporated active materials – manufactured in laboratories – or, in some cases, significant impurities introduced during the manufacture of these products.
"Whatever we may know about the active ingredients – the naphyrones, ethcathinones and so on, albeit in most cases anecdotally – we simply know nothing about the impurities and this is of great concern."
He said a product that was 99% pure naphyrone and 1% impurity could pose major risks: "That 1% impurity could be 1,000 times more potent than the parent molecule. It could be very, very, toxic."
The research details have been posted on www.drugs.ie, a website run by Crosscare, attached to the Dublin Catholic Diocese, and funded by the HSE.
Source: Cormac O'Keefe, The Irish Examiner, 26/07/2010
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