Ireland - Irish Head Shops Raided - San Pedro, Peyote, Woodrose Seeds seized

[Mr. Giraffe]

Gardaí raid 22 'head shops' suspected of selling illegal drugs

GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the suspected sale of illegal drugs over the counter in shops have raided 22 premises across the country in a co-ordinated operation led by the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU).

The investigation, codenamed Operation Fluorine, targeted so-called "head shops", which sell products billed as natural highs.

The shops were raided yesterday starting at noon in counties Dublin, Cork, Galway, Louth, Laois, Longford, Westmeath, Tipperary and Kildare.

A large quantity of merchandise was taken away and will be analysed to see if it contains ingredients based on illegal drugs. If prohibited substances are found the owners of the businesses where they were on sale face prosecution under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The owners could be charged with possessing drugs for sale or supply in the same way that criminals caught with harder drugs, such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin, are prosecuted.

The Irish Times understands the operation was specifically targeted at the detection of two hallucinogenic plant-based products. Gardaí believe at least some of the ingredients are prohibited under drugs legislation.

Although a stimulant product called "herbal E" containing benzylpiperazine has been the subject of much public debate in recent years, that product was not the target of yesterday's operation.

Yesterday's searches were the culmination of a three-month investigation led by GNDU but also involving drugs units and local gardaí in the areas where the shops are located.

Det Supt Barry O'Brien of GNDU said the investigation was not focused, as some reports suggested, on whether the shops were licensed to sell the products in question. Instead, it was narrowly focused on determining if illegal ingredients were contained in the seized products being sold over the counter.

No arrests in relation to the products can take place until the analysis determines if they contain illegal elements. However, one person was arrested in the course of yesterday's searches in connection with possession of a controlled drug.

Products were taken for analysis from all but one of the shops raided yesterday.

It is unclear from where the products had been imported into the State. However, they are often processed and packaged in the UK or mainland Europe before being shipped to Ireland as legitimate goods for sale.

Gráinne Kenny, international president of Europe Against Drugs, congratulated the Garda on yesterday's operation. She said many shops around the country were "selling drugs that are potentially very risky".

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...925540563.html

Irish police (Gardai) have carried out simultaneous raids on a number of Irish head shops. Warrants were served for possession of Peruvian Torch, San Pedro, Kratom and baby woodrose seeds, which the Gardai maintain are all illegal under the Misuse of Drug Act.

Gardai seized all stock of these items, but did not seize Salvia or any of the legal smokeables on sale.

Further details as I get them.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Thanks for sharing.
	SWIM wasn't trying to be mean about the sources
	Sad news, but good find :)

[bloot]

Source?

SWIM is interested

[Mr. Giraffe]

Source: me.

My sources: head shop owners.

Edit to add: Just found out RTE reported this as well. Apparently, Grainne Kenny was on Liveline praising the raids. Which is not surprising. Link: http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1106/headshop.html

Text:

Gardai have carried out searches at dozens of so called head shops as part of an investigation into the licensing of certain products.
In an operation which began at noon, detectives searched premises in Dublin and throughout the country and have taken away several products for further investigation.
The sale of 'party pills' in a variety of shops around the country has been under scrutiny for some time.
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The products are not illegal.
However, some products have herbal contents and gardaí have seized them - saying there is concern over whether or not the shops that are selling them are properly licensed.
Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has called for emergency legislation to be brought before the Dáil to deal with the availability of herbal ecstasy.
She claimed two young people in Co Galway are being treated in a psychiatric unit as a result of taking the drug.
Herbal ecstasy contains the legal drug BZP (Benzylpiperazine) and has effects similar to MDMA.
BZP is legally sold in Ireland although it is banned in a nyumber of other countries, including the US.

Incidentally, as I understand it, BZP was not seized.

More:

Listen to Liveline's show today: Grainne Kenny, Europe Against Drugs, and Paddy Grant, owner of Nirvana duke it out. Discussion begins at 28.25 mins
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.h...-liveline.smil

I'm listening now. And groaning.

[3rd_high]

All i can think of is that they want to do analysis to find out if there's anything illegal in the pills (a lot of stuff aren't properly listed on the ingredients so the headshop owners could claim they had no way of knowing what was in them if the ingredients weren't listed) but why take the ethnobotanicals such as san pedro cactus skin peelings? Is this classed as preperation and intent/supply of mescaline? God help us all.. hope this is not the begining of the end for the legal/herbal industry.

[podge]

Haha. I know that guy colm who rang in.

[Lunar Loops]

Wow, this is a disturbing turn of events. I'm not sure I can bring myself to listen to that woman any more. She makes my skin crawl and my blood boil. In fact she is likely to lead me into a psychotic episode.....can we ban her?

Shops all around the country. Enquiries need to be made.

[Heretic.Ape.]

The products are not illegal.
However, some products have herbal contents and gardaí have seized them - saying there is concern over whether or not the shops that are selling them are properly licensed.

What kind of licensing is necessary for selling herbs?

[Nature Boy]

I hate listening to that Joe Duffy show. The level of ignorance is unbelievable and those who actually do have legitimate points get wrapped up in childish discussions about BZP and what taking it is like. I appreciate those who try to argue against these conservative clowns but it isn't a very accessible platform. It's the equivalent of a molecular biologist trying to have a discussion with Ellen G. White.

[Joe Duffy]

Geez do the fricken cops have nothing better to do.

[Alfa]

I will bet that EURAD has been filing complaints to the police while adding legal reasoning why these products would be illegal.

[Joe Duffy]

I see the witch isn’t even anymore the self-appointed universal president.

[Euphoric]

Ah, the glorious country where SWIM first found good head shops with good legal highs. Some fond memories.

So are Woodrose seeds scheduled there? What of MG? And the others?

[Alfa]

I hear there are similar things going on in the UK and Channel Islands. More info to follow.

[porchy]

A local shop in my town had been closed down for selling bongs, although I wouldn't call it a head shop, more of a "Trading Post" (actual name).

[Alfa]

Originally Posted by porchy

A local shop in my town had been closed down for selling bongs, although I wouldn't call it a head shop, more of a "Trading Post" (actual name).

Could you please find more info about this and start a thread about this? I t seems that the UK government is taking some heavy handed actions against headshop type outlets.

[Nature Boy]

Originally Posted by Alfa

I will bet that EURAD has been filing complaints to the police while adding legal reasoning why these products would be illegal.

Good point. Gráinne Kenny will stop at nothing until Ireland is completely void of anything resembling a head shop. It's her own little life crusade. Thankfully she's quite old and she probably can't be active that much longer. Then again, she could be another one of those irritating old biddies that live to be 105, casting her piety on others all the way to her cold-ass grave.

It struck me as remarkable when she asked the headshop owner, Paddy, about his qualifications and then starting listing her own. Twenty years as a family drug counselor - in other words, twenty years sitting on her clammy behind listening to down-and-outs regurgitating the same old stories blaming everyone but themselves for their inevitable downfalls. Sickening.

[Mr. Giraffe]

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

Good point. Gráinne Kenny will stop at nothing until Ireland is completely void of anything resembling a head shop. It's her own little life crusade. Thankfully she's quite old and she probably can't be active that much longer. Then again, she could be another one of those irritating old biddies that live to be 105, casting her piety on others all the way to her cold-ass grave.

Unfortunately, she's not as old as you think. 55 tops. Still another 20 years of sabre-rattling in that teetotalitarian yet!

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

It struck me as remarkable when she asked the headshop owner, Paddy, about his qualifications and then starting listing her own. Twenty years as a family drug counselor - in other words, twenty years sitting on her clammy behind listening to down-and-outs regurgitating the same old stories blaming everyone but themselves for their inevitable downfalls. Sickening.

Even more amusing is the fact that Kenny herself doesn't actually have any qualifications. Not only is she not taken seriously by any drug policy or addiction treatment people in this country, she's not a recognised drugs counsellor either.

[vinylmesh]

This should not have an effect on the uk. The courts over there decided already that dried cactus does not count as a prperation of mescaline. In Ireland however, it does and apparently always has (i think plant material started counting as a "preparation" when magic mushrooms were banned).


I don't think kratom was affected.

Besides one could always go up north....

[Nature Boy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Giraffe

Unfortunately, she's not as old as you think. 55 tops. Still another 20 years of sabre-rattling in that teetotalitarian yet!

Bloody 'eck! From her appearance, you'd think she's mid-60's at least.

[Mr. Giraffe]

Originally Posted by vinylmesh

I don't think kratom was affected.

I should clarify this: the first head shop guy I spoke to said Kratom, but he must have been mistaken. It doesn't appear that Kratom was taken; the officers were aware what they were looking for and took the items containing the banned substances. I will edit the thread title accordingly.

The cops are confident that the law will be interpreted in their favour and hope to secure prosecutions. This will go down as Grainne Kenny's greatest victory, and is a sad indictment of Ireland's immature attitude towards 'drugs'.

[Alfa]

So they are after plants that contain controlled substances like mescaline and DMT?
AFAIK Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds do not contain anything that is controlled in Ireland. Please let me know what the legal status of Hawaiian baby woodrose in Ireland is.

[Mr. Giraffe]

The warrant is for LSA and mescaline; the authorities will argue that the seized substances contain same and are therefore preparations being illegal under the existing drug laws.

These are not new laws; simply more severe interpretations of existing laws.

[Alfa]

Does anyone know what law makes LSA illegal in Ireland?

[Mr. Giraffe]

According to the warrant, it's the Misuse of Drugs Act, the same one that makes the regular suspects illegal, and a copy of the UK laws, where I believe LSA isn't illegal (though I could be wrong about this)

[akack2]

They took baby woodrose and morning glory seeds/spores

also san pedro cactus and peruvian torch,nothing else

but another head shop was raided last week and they too all the bzp claiming it was illegal