Legal highs linked to referral of 20 youths to treatment centre

The young people have all been referred to the Matt Talbot Adolescent Centre since March and, in addition to legal highs, have a range of problems including alcohol and illegal drug use.

According to the centre’s clinical manager, Edel Foley, 19 of the young people referred to the service were using mephedrone – which has already been banned in Britain but remains on sale in head shops here.

Ms Foley said young people said they became attached to legal highs quicker than illegal drugs as the effects are stronger.

She said side-effects included intense paranoia and hallucinations and that the comeback could be particularly aggressive causing headaches, confusion and memory loss.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy Eames said enforcement officers from the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) should seize drug products with a pharmacological effect.

She said under Irish legislation, all products for which medicinal claims are made or which contain substances likely to have effects on the body must be authorised by the IMB prior to being marketed here, and should be subjected to clinical trials to ensure safety and production standards.

"The delay in dealing with the proliferation of head shops and the sale of legal highs in this country is costing us dearly. In the absence of adequate legislation to tackle this problem, alternative action is needed immediately," she said.

"A ban on all head shop products which have not been authorised by the IMB or the Food Safety Authority of Ireland is urgently needed as is legislation to list the active substances in these products as controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Acts," said Ms Healy Eames.

"However, we cannot afford to wait for the OK from Europe or for legislation to be drafted. I am calling on enforcement officers from the IMB to visit head shops and to seize the drug products which are being sold, on the basis that they have a pharmacological action but haven’t been authorised for sale under medicines legislation," she said.

"We cannot afford to wait for tragedy to strike again before we tackle this issue head on. It is just a matter of weeks until the Junior and Leaving Cert exams will be over, when some children may be tempted to experiment with drugs and alcohol."

Source: Jennifer Hough, The Irish Examiner, 11/05/2010