Schools advised on dangers of drugs
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DROGHEDA gardaí have circulated to all schools in the area an information leaflet on so-called head shops and the 'legal highs' they sell in an attempt to educate parents and teachers on the dangers of these drugs.
Superintendent Gerry Smith told a recent meeting of Drogheda's Joint Policing Committee that just because these highs are described as 'legal' does not mean they are safe.
'I'm dreading the day the emergency services and ourselves get called out to a fatality,' he said.
He said as far as the legality of these shops was concerned, it was 'a very grey area'.
'They are being sold as food stuffs so they don't come under the control of the Drugs Act and they're exploiting young people,' he said. 'We are distributing this leaflet to school managements in the hope that they will get it out to parents.'
Raising the issue in a motion, Councillor Richie Culhane said a cross-party, multi-agency approach was needed to tackle the sale of legal highs from local head shops.
'It's a very worrying trend to see young people with these products,' he said. 'We don't want a situation where a young person is found dead after taking a product bought in one of these shops. It's difficult enough for gardaí to deal with drugs sold on the streets and elsewhere. We don't need these head shops as well, we need to move to ban them.'
The leaflet distributed by the gardaí includes information on what these drugs are, why they are not illegal and what to do to protect your son or daughter from these 'legal highs'.
Councillor Kevin Callan said the gardaí's hands were tied on this issue and what it really came down to was a moral issue.
He said anyone renting a premises to someone running one of these head shops should immediately issue them with notices to quit.
Councillor Oliver Tully said he welcomed the garda's information leaflet because educating parents and students was the most important thing to do.
He said these drugs were also widely available on the internet which was very difficult to police and the only people who could control this was the parents.
Councillor Imelda Munster suggested the committee write to the HSE asking them to take out ads in the local media as part of a concerted awareness campaign.
- Fiona MAGENNIS
