Offer ended March 12.
In what must be one of the most colossal legal oversights of all time, drugs including ecstasy, ketamine and magic mushrooms were legal for a day in Ireland due to a loophole in the law.
The bizarre situation followed a ruling in the Court of Appeal on the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 on March 10 declaring the act void. It meant that certain drugs that had been previously declared illegal were effectively legal, but only until emergency legislation was passed to reverse the situation.
The ruling occurred because additions had been made to the Misuse of Drugs Act that didn’t go through the Oireachtas (Irish parliament), which was deemed unconstitutional by the Irish Court of Appeal. The ruling determined in favour of a head shop owner who had been prosecuted for possession of methylethcathinone (known as 4-Mec), which was among a number of substances put on the list of controlled drugs in 2010.
Stanislav Bederev brought a high court challenge in Dublin seeking to stop his trial, with his legal team arguing methylethcathinone was put on the list unlawfully because there was no consultation with the Irish parliament to amend the law – something they argued was unconstitutional.
As a result of the ruling, which has declared any additions to the act void since it was passed in 1977, over 100 substances including ecstasy, ketamine, crystal meth and various ‘legal highs’ became temporarily legal until a new emergency bill was rushed through. The ruling did not affect the status of older drugs like cannabis, cocaine and heroin, which were named in the original 1977 act.
Unfortunately for the Irish government, the loophole couldn’t be closed until the amended law had gone through Irish parliament’s lower and upper houses and been signed off by the president, which took until Thursday (March 12). Until then, ecstasy users were apparently able to take the drug without facing the extent of the law. [via TheJournal.ie]
Read more: Look at some amazing art made from thousands of pills and read our Rave Week highlight The A-Z Of Rave.
