Leaflets handed out throughout the city last week offering a 15 per cent discount for customers of a head shop have been slammed by a local senator who believes the shop is ridiculing the Government.
Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames made the comments last week after it was brought to her attention that one city centre head shop was offering customers a 15 per cent Christmas discount with leaflets that were being handed out on the streets of Galway. She said that the “brazen action showed that the purveyors of such substances were laughing in the face of a Government that is failing to regulate the sector.”
The senator recently highlighted the dangers of herbal ecstasy, and the controversial substance BZP included in the product, after two Galway youths who had used the legal drugs ended up in a psychiatric unit for a number of weeks.
“There is nothing to stop this trader from attractively marketing potentially dangerous substances and the kit that goes with them to young people, who may not know the risks involved,” said the senator. “It is particularly worrying in the current economic climate when people may be worried or feeling the need to escape and, when faced with a discounted offer, may not think about the consequences.
“What is stopping the Minister for Health from regulating this sector?” asked Senator Healy-Eames. “Do we need to wait for more young people to end up in psychiatric units before we see action? I am calling on her to recognise that young people are being placed at risk and act urgently to protect them.”
