Albert Sagan for Art-Sheep
Early this week the government of Ireland found itself in a most awkward position. They had to hurry in order to find a way to pass an emergency legislation that would amend the accidental legalization of several recreational drugs like ecstasy and crystal meth.
This accident didn’t last long, only until 12 noon yesterday, but it certainly was odd.
What happened was that on Tuesday morning the Irish Court of Appeal ruled a section of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 as unconstitutional. That specific part of the Act allows certain substances to be controlled. And so a loophole was created, which had to be closed ASAP.
Minister for Health Leo Varadkar commented that they were prepared for this possibility. “Legislation was prepared and approved in advance by Cabinet” and continued to say that the emergency legislation “will re-instate the status quo ante and re-control all drugs that were controlled prior to this judgment.”
In a press release, the Irish Department of Health said that the loophole made the possession of certain drugs like MDMA, benzodiazepines and other, newer psychotropic drugs to instantly cease to be an offense. Nevertheless, it didn’t affect other popular recreational drugs, like heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
via cnn
