Ireland - When are the Irish Headshops going to wake up and organize themselves?

[Alfa]

So when are the Irish headshops going to wake up and form an alliance?
When are they going to hire a PR company and stop being sitting ducks for Grainne Kenny to shoot shit at?
We all know where this is going. At some point the media and government will take serious offence at the headshops and they will be closed down.

They have already been raided without good reason and Grainne Kenny (EURAD) has banned magic mushrooms single handedly.

[Mr. Giraffe]

You might be giving EURAD a little too much credit on the mushroom front. It was the campaign led by Colm Hodgkinson's family which ultimately led to the ban; Grainne Kenny had been banging on about it to no avail until Hodgkinson's family publicly blamed mushrooms for his death.

Nonetheless, your question is valid. There is a *lot* of bitching, in-fighting and OTT rivalry between Ireland's head shop owners but they were able to work together to fund the anti-prohibition protests over the last couple of years, so they are capable of working together sometimes.

[vinylmesh]

Originally Posted by Mr. Giraffe

You might be giving EURAD a little too much credit on the mushroom front. It was the campaign led by Colm Hodgkinson's family which ultimately led to the ban; Grainne Kenny had been banging on about it to no avail until Hodgkinson's family publicly blamed mushrooms for his death.

Nonetheless, your question is valid. There is a *lot* of bitching, in-fighting and OTT rivalry between Ireland's head shop owners but they were able to work together to fund the anti-prohibition protests over the last couple of years, so they are capable of working together sometimes.

what anti-prohibition protests?

I remember some legalise cannabis marches, but that's nowhere near the same as an anti prohibition march. An anti-prohibiton march would recieve a lot more notice than a legalise cannabis march, even if there is less people. Too good to be true imo.

[Mr. Giraffe]

Originally Posted by vinylmesh

what anti-prohibition protests?

I remember some legalise cannabis marches, but that's nowhere near the same as an anti prohibition march. An anti-prohibiton march would recieve a lot more notice than a legalise cannabis march, even if there is less people. Too good to be true imo.

Well spotted - yes, it was essentially a legalise cannabis march, though it did also bill itself as an anti-prohibition march. I guess if you did a straw poll of attendees, though, not all of them would favour total legalisation of currently illicit drugs.

Anyways, 1000 heads at a legalise cannabis march in the centre of Dublin is a good start!

[Nature Boy]

If I were to go about opening a headshop in Ireland, I would do it completely differently. The closest place to what I would have in mind is a store called The Hemp Company. There's one in Cork and I'm pretty sure there's a few others spread around the country. They have a good front. They sell hemp clothes, shoes, gearbags and the like. They also sell bongs, smoking equipment, legal highs and seeds. They have the right idea when it comes to presentation. It comes across as a sort of general purpose store as opposed to a typical headshop which gets a bad name from busy body conservative types.

There's two ways to go about running a headshop. You can throw caution to the wind and peddle little red pills to school kids hoping to make maximum profit but draw a lot of trouble. Alternatively, you can be crafty and promote a sound public image giving the impression that your store is of cultural value as opposed to being an outlet of drug abuse.

You're right though Alfa, they should form a union. I might discuss this with headshop owners the next time I visit one. There seems to be a rivalry between them however, as Mr Giraffe pointed out. They need to put their differences aside on this matter though. They won't last much longer if they don't work as a unit.

[Alfa]

The attacks on headshops are almost always the same:

• Sales to minors.
• Sales without information.
• Deadly or dangerous drugs being sold.
• Outrage after hospitalisations or worse.
• Ridiculous claims by EURAD or other drug crusaders.
• Police encounters due to assumed breaches of the law.

A union of headshops would be able to tackle these claims, by:

• imposing regulations to its members in regards to minimum age.
• imposing regulations to its members in regards to information standards, staff training and producing flyers.
• imposing regulation to its members in regards to product safety.
• hiring a PR agency to counter any ridiculous claims in the media.
• hiring a law firm to research legal grey areas and how to counter attacks. (The recent raids could probably have been countered if each shop would have had a statement from a law firm, explaining why each confiscated product was legal)

More importantly a union would also be an entity that would be able to communicate and negotiate with the government. This allows compromise in case of impending bans or measures.
So far the media is only trampling the headshops, which leads to media pressure upon politicians. Media pressure combined with lobby has so far been the main formula for victory for EURAD.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Sound analysis.

[Lunar Loops]

In terms of PR they definitely need to get someone else to speak on their behalf as all of the owners I have heard on radio talk-ins have been next to useless at cuontering arguments. Worse than that, some of them come across as little more than unscrupulous businessmen out to make a quick buck and bugger the consequences.

I shudder when I hear some of the stuff they come out with.

[helikophis]

I went into a head shop in Temple Bar yesterday. The guys in there didn't talk much after I walked in, but I got the impression that they were talking about the badness going down. I asked a couple questions about it, and they seemed pretty unconcerned. Actually they seemed to think it was funny.

There weren't any signs up encouraging people to protest or write to Parliament, they weren't passing out literature about the situation, in short, they weren't doing _anything_ to inform the public about the law, or about conservative pressure to infringe our rights.

I suppose I might've made suggestions or something, but didn't. I got the impression anyway that they weren't at all interested in talking to strangers about it. Maybe that is wise, I guess I could have something to do with the gardai (ahhaha, long-haired bushy-bearded American that I am), but it seems like poor policy to me. Ah well.

On the other hand, the Legion of Mary evangelizing just down the street had lots to say! Lovely people.

[Alfa]

Mind that workers will often have a totally different opinion than managers and owners. Many workers will not care until it starts to affect their paycheck.

[helikophis]

Originally Posted by Alfa

Mind that workers will often have a totally different opinion than managers and owners. Many workers will not care until it starts to affect their paycheck.

Ah, that's a good point, I hadn't thought of that.

[Coconut]

This forum has taught me a lot of things, not least of all that responsibility and care, for both yourself and others, are essential in the world of psychoactives.

As a result, I'm actually rather tempted to seek out a part-time job in a Dublin headshop now, although I suspect that I would get too carried away with attempting to create a headshop union that it would prove detrimental to my academic work.

A theoretically good idea is if Irish DF members were to get on to their local headshops and either try to convince them that they need to clean up their act or seek employment in order to reform them from the inside. In practice though, I don't see it being feasible.

Gráinne Kenny... what a fucking lunatic. She has to be directly countered. Her assaults can't simply be shrugged off or laughed about.