Head-shop drugs caused a massive upsurge in street assaults and violent muggings in the capital, a senior garda has revealed.
Chief Superintendent Pat Leahy said teenagers who had never been in trouble with the law in the past were turned, in a matter of weeks, into violent criminals with a string of offences to their name because of the influence of the powerful 'legal highs'.
And he revealed that the big players in the head-shop phenomenon could yet face criminal charges of reckless endangerment.
"A file was prepared before the head-shop legislation was passed and is still being considered by the Director of Public Prosecutions," Chief Supt Leahy said.
In a briefing given to community leaders in the North Inner City last Wednesday, Chief Supt Leahy said that 13 head shops in the area had sparked a crimewave and that head shops had the potential to cause more damage than any other drugs problem ever seen in the capital.
"Crime figures were soaring. We had youngsters taken into Store Street and in the Bridewell who were 16 and 17 years of age and who had never featured on the police radar before. These were young people who had never been charged with any offence and had never been arrested in their lives. Now they were in for questioning for six or seven violent robberies," Chief Supt Leahy said.
He revealed that some had suffered memory loss and had no idea that they had committed a mugging or robbery.
"Some of them didn't even remember the offences they committed until they were shown them on CCTV. Only then could they say 'Yes that was me. I admit it'," he added.
He also said that the drugs were so powerful that, on arrest, some of the suspects had to be rushed to A&E units around the city.
"In some cases, they had to go to hospital for 24 to 48 hours after they were arrested before they could be interviewed because they were so out of it on these products. This was a most significant issue," he added.
On May 11, Health Minister Mary Harney announced the ban of a list of specified drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 through the introduction of a government order. In the three weeks since its introduction, crime in the capital has dropped significantly, Chief Supt Leahy revealed.
Drugs banned from sale include synthetic cannabinoids, benzylpiperazine, mephedrone, piperazine derivatives, flephedrone and MDPV.
"As gardai, we saw head shops as the most significant element of policing from a negative perspective that we had seen in many years and one which had the potential to create more damage than anything seen from a drugs perspective previously. It had the potential to do that in such double quick time that we had never seen it before," Chief Supt Leahy said.
He said that within weeks the number of head shops in the north inner city increased to 13, with some opening 24 hours a day.
"We found that crime, particularly street crime, robberies of the person, and violent robberies increased at a huge rate. That included the snatching of handbags or mobile telephones, people being stopped in the street and threatened or having their wallets stolen. All those offences went up to a level that was unsustainable. We had to take significant action to address this," he said.
He revealed that on the evening the legislation was passed in the Dail, gardai visited every head shop in the division and seized every product off the shelves.
"If the shop was closed we rang up the landlords and told them if they did not come in immediately to open up we would get a warrant. We felt we were dealing with very unscrupulous people and were determined to take an aggressive approach," he added.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that one-in-five teenagers seen by a leading drug treatment centre is hooked on substances bought in head shops.
Consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Bobby Smyth, who works with the National Drug Treatment Centre Board in Dublin, said some of the banned substances were more dangerous than long-established "illegal drugs".
Dr Smyth said: "I work especially with under-18s in drug and alcohol treatment and I'd say that those with addictions to head-shop drugs make up about 20 per cent of the people I come across now.
"This number has grown since early 2009, but it should be said only the minority of this amount have head-shop drugs as their primary addiction -- often it's associated with alcohol or other hardcore drugs. Cannabis, I would say, is a safer drug than the ones replicating it that were sold in the head shops."
Source: Jerome Reilly, The Sunday Independent, 30/05/2010
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