The Castlebar Joint Policing Committee was told this week that the head shops were always one step ahead of legislation, despite public concerns. Castlebar Mayor Cllr Michael Kilcoyne asked town engineer Sean Higgins what the current situation was in relation to proceedings taken by the council on the issue. Mr Higgins informed the meeting that the council was in the process of investigating the planning history of the two head shops in the town, and had sent a warning letter to one shop.
Rod O’Connor, a community representative on the committee, brought to the meeting a phial that he found containing a substance that was sold in the head shop, and explained that he found it, half full, on the steps in Knockthomas, and that any child could have picked it up and ingested it.
“Unfortunately these substances are not illegal and there is not much we can do about it,” Mayor Michael Kilcoyne pointed out. Fianna Fáil councillor Blackie Gavin praised the effort being made by the gardaí to police the stores, but said he was watching one of the shops and was disturbed by the number of young people he saw going in and out. He said and it was very frightening to see the change in the behaviour of some of the people who he saw using the shops.
Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston said parents needed to educate their children more on the dangers of the products the shops sell. However Mayor Kilcoyne told the meeting he was disappointed with the interest that parents have shown in the town over the issue. “We held a protest and if you took the press out of the number of people who showed up then we would have had only maybe 20 people at it, and when a second one was held only seven or eight members of the public showed up.”
Sinn Féin councillor Therese Ruane added that while legislation was being brought in to deal with some substances the people who make the products are always a step ahead. She said they will have a new alternative substance that gets around the law and it would be two years before the legislation will catch up with it. She also said it was time that regulation was brought in so that every substance that was sold had to be tested before it was allowed to be sold. Mayor Kilcoyne pointed out that this would be almost impossible as the products are all labelled not for human consumption to get around the current law. He said there are lots of other products, from paints and varnishes to medication sold in veterinary pharmacies, that are labelled not fit for human consumption.
The Mayor also praised the effort of the landlord of one of the shops who tried to bring a Circuit Court action to break the lease on his premises on Castle Street, in which a head shop was operating, but the court found that it was a valid lease and the tenant was agreeing with the terms of it.
