Head Shops In Ireland

I had left the party twelve hours ago, had gotten some sleep and recovered from a long night in a bustling pub, on to a loud flashing club and back to a sombre and seemingly never ending house party; who the house belonged to didn’t seem to matter. It had been a good time and the night would be deemed a success, whatever that meant. But the buzz from my phone now suggested that for some; those with the ‘stamina’ to stay on, those ‘brave enough’ to endure, those with enough money for the delivery service from the local headshop, the party was only in it’s second wind. It was a picture-message.

Blow, XXX and X4 are some of the alternatives for cannabis; but don’t call them that, because they’re not for smoking and definitely aren’t intended for human consumption. Charge, Hurricane Charlie and White Gold, are some of the inventive names given to the alternatives for cocaine; but again, this stuff is not meant for imbibing so don’t call them that. However these new chemical combinations are being smoked, snorted and even injected, giving the same effects as the psychoactive drugs they are impersonating. According to the back of the packaging on all products, these are merely ‘plant foods’ and ‘bath salts’. How imaginative.

The picture I had received was of a friend passed out, head back and mouth wide open, in a bathtub surrounded by plants with one particularly impressive flowering Tulip blooming gloriously from said gaping black chasm. The inscription read: “Too much plant food!” Good one lads.

These second wind, never-ending parties have become the common theme for all weekend revellers; be they college students with no responsibility but the poem that has to be written in the vein of Derrick Mahon for the Arts degree on Monday afternoon, or the five-day nine to fiver with the monthly salary and the ever cheapening flat for the parties. The headshops have revolutionised the weekends, the after-party, how to beat the recession(the Nirvana chain, with seven locations in Ireland and two in England have reported profits of twelve million for 2009 alone) but more importantly, they’ve inflenced who partakes in these larks. The ages can range from teens to old-age. The societal status can be from hardened junkie to casual dabbler or student to CEO. After all, everything they sell is legal and so, in most an average buyers mind, safe.

Safety is the big worry for most voicing a negative opinion on these by-curious powders and odd weeds that look more like fish food than plant. And it’s safety that we’re most in the dark about. Doctors and scientists will be the first to say that the long term side-effects are so far unproven and that short term effects could be merely due to over ingestion and hedonistic self-indulgence.

"These are substances that have not been researched and therefore we don't actually have the information on the effects" says a doctor from Cabinteely, Dublin.

Internet forums are abuzz with comments and are the best place to go to educate yourself in the how-to’s and why-not’s, and can even throw up some serious arguments to be considered.
“I think the headshops are a great idea... the ones in Dublin are really busy... and I'd much rather see money go into their hands than that of a dealer... they don't fund organised crime and you can have some assurance on what you’re getting...” said one eager poster supposedly in the know.

The ‘revealing’ report on the issue, on the agenda driven, investigative reporting show, Prime Time, was inevitable. But unfortunately, it missed the point and came off as more fear-mongering than thorough. There are two sides to the debate on what to do about these shops, and possibly a more sensible and workable middle-ground.

The fear-induced parent and Prime Time preferred way would be to make the current ‘drugs’ illegal and try to keep up with, and ban, whatever substances are invented to substitute for the chemicals on their way out.

The advocates of headshops and legal-highs would prefer regulation and tax to be brought in, in the same way that cigarettes and alcohol are controlled, keeping a closer governmental, medical and legal eye on the growing issue and possible health risks.

The compromise would seem to be simple and obvious: regulated shops with certain ‘bath salts’ and ‘plant foods’, the ones already illegal in other countries and known to be potentially harmful, banned and age limits and even purchase limits(similar to those put on simple painkillers i.e. Paracetamol) put on the rest. A blind, blanket ban on shops or their substances is not feasible and, by law, can’t work.

However, the social perception of the issue is so different and so divided that an even compromise and fair middle-ground may be impossible.