Head shops and new psychoactive substances: a public health perspective

In 2010, Ireland found itself at the eye of an international storm as a network of head shops emerged selling new psychoactive substances (NPS) and Irish youth rapidly became the heaviest users of NPS in Europe. Within months, the Irish government enacted novel legislation, which has since been copi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIrish journal of psychological medicine Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 89 - 96
Main Author Smyth, B. P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.03.2023
Subjects
Adolescent
Behavioral psychology
Black markets
Debates
Drug addiction
Drug policy
Europe
Humans
Ireland
Legislation
Media coverage
Perspective Piece
Psychotropic drugs
Psychotropic Drugs - adverse effects
Public Health
Qualitative research
Sociology
Substance abuse treatment
Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology
Europe
Ireland
United Kingdom > UK
Hospital admissions
new psychoactive substances
public health
substance use disorders
legislation
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Summary:In 2010, Ireland found itself at the eye of an international storm as a network of head shops emerged selling new psychoactive substances (NPS) and Irish youth rapidly became the heaviest users of NPS in Europe. Within months, the Irish government enacted novel legislation, which has since been copied by other countries, which effectively stopped the head shops selling NPS. Critics of this policy argued that it could cause harms to escalate. A number of separate studies indicate that a range of drug-related harms increased amongst Irish youth during the period of head shop expansion. Within months of their closure, health harms began to decline. NPS-related addiction treatment episodes reduced and admissions to both psychiatric and general hospitals related to any drug problem began to fall. Population use underwent sustained decline. Consequently, the closure of head shops can be viewed as a success in terms of public health.
ISSN:0790-9667
2051-6967
DOI:10.1017/ipm.2020.131