Killarney outlet hands over €100k in newly-illegal substances

Killarney outlet hands over €100k in newly-illegal substances




by Breda Joy

An estimated €100,000 in so-called 'legal highs' were handed over to gardaí by staff of the Funky Skunk headshop in Killarney on Tuesday, just hours after the Government announced new measures to criminalise substances sold in over 100 similar nationwide.

Gardaí called to the shop in High Street, Killarney, and to the Happy Hippy outlet in Bridge Street, Tralee, at about 6pm, on foot of existing anti-drugs legislation and a newly-drafted bill from the Department of Justice.

The shelves of both shops had been cleared. An investigation is continuing into the Tralee shop, where a lesser amount of substances were handed over to gardaí.

The Happy Hippy is now closed but the Killarney shop, which sells clothes and artifacts in addition to the products handed over to the Kerry Divisional Drugs Unit members, remains open.

Detective Garda Inspector Dan Keane, who has responsibility for the Drugs Unit, said the shop owners had given an undertaking that they would be putting nothing from the new list of banned substances on the shelves.

Det Keane said the Tralee shop was closed when gardaí called at around 6pm on Tuesday, but the owner was contacted and access was gained.

Practically all of the Tralee shop, which had been closed throughout the day, had been cleared.

“The owner, who has a number of shops in Clare and Dublin, handed over a sizeable bag of products, now illegal,” Det Keane said.

He estimated that the substances handed over in Killarney were worth in the region of €100,000.

In relation to the possibility of a black market evolving in the wake of the crackdown, Det Keane said there were hefty fines and prison sentences in relation to the newly-banned substances which had been sold as an alternative to illegal drugs.

The new penalties include up to seven years' imprisonment and/or a fine for unlawful possession and, on indictment, up to a maximum period of life imprisonment for unlawful supply.

Det Keane said that, in June, new legislation will be introduced in relation to any illegal substances which had a psychiatric effect. He said gardaí would be able to apply to the District Court for a closure in relation to any shop selling illegal substances.

“We will be very active if there is any emerging problem,” he said.

He encouraged anyone with illegal products bought in head shops to bring them to the Garda stations in Tralee or Killarney where they would be destroyed.

“There's a whole new generation of people who would not have gone to a dealer to dabble in getting some sort of a high and who had this opportunity open to them to go into a shop to buy a product with no implication from a legal point of view,” Det Keane said.

“A whole new generation were taking these products and were sucked into becoming dependent on them,” he said.

“We know from A&E units and psychiatric services that there have been increased admissions out of all these.

“The best outcome of the new measures is that they take it off the streets and prevent a new generation of kids from being introduced to these products in such a cavalier fashion,” he said.

Killarney Councillor Tom Doherty, a former chairman of the Killarney Drugs Liaison Committee which petitioned the Minister for Justice about headshops, welcomed the action taken this week.

“Young people believed that the legal highs had no harmful side-effects which couldn't be further from the truth,” Cllr Doherty said.

“I'm sure a lot of parents will be able to rest easy after this. There was a fear factor among parents because kids could get easy access to products that could cause psycho-active episodes.”

KERRY'S EYE NEWSPAPER