By now you have probably heard the news that certain drugs – like ecstasy, ketamine and crystal meth – are all legal to possess in Ireland until midnight on Thursday.
A ruling in the Court of Appeal today effectively means that some drugs that had been declared illegal in previous years are currently legal.
Legal, that is, until emergency legislation from Health Minister Leo Varadkar is pushed through the Dáil tonight and the Seanad tomorrow which will restore the legal position to what it was before today.
Here’s a quick explainer on how and why this has happened and what it all means…
What happened this morning?
The Court of Appeal ruled that Section 2(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1997 was unconstitutional because it gives the government law-making power that should be for the Oireachtas.
The court ruled that the law gives ministers the power to make possession of certain drugs illegal by order without scheduling the policies and principles against which they do so, Health Minister Leo Varadkar explained today.
This is repugnant to Article 15 of the Constitution.
What was the case in question?
The case concerned a prosecution of Lithuanian-born Stanislav Bederev for possession of methylethcathinone (also known as cat) which was among a number of substances put on the controlled drugs list in 2010.
He brought a High Court challenge seeking to stop his trial claiming that the regulations were unconstitutional. While the High Court ruled in favour of the State a number of months ago, the Court of Appeal over-ruled this verdict this morning.
Source: Hugh O'Connell, Aoife Barry and Sinead O’Carroll, thejournal, 10/03/15
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