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Thursday, July 01, 2010
Shop protests
I DISAGREE with The Kingdom’s editorial comment on head shops in which the writer stated that staging politically motivated protests outside the doors of head shops was essentially about political opportunism and was a waste of time.
I do not think this to be the case. In fact, in my opinion, the one positive side to the whole head shop issue was that it united many individuals in our communities as they took to the streets all over the country in protest.
I firmly believe that the government would have continued to be inactive on the issue and would not have drafted any bill to deal with these legal highs had it not been for the community groups or Sinn Féin, as was the case in Tralee, picketing these shops.
I think at the very least, as we awaited legislation to deal with these substances, these protests highlighted the dangers of using these products.
In my opinion, there was a general public consensus that because these products were sold legally, they were not harmful but this was not the case.
Many young individuals experienced severe negative side effects after taking these products.
I think it is inappropriate to dismiss these protests as useless when in fact, the fault lies with the government in that the bill they drafted did not go far enough to effectively deal with this issue and replica products have once again come to market.
It would have been more appropriate for the government to act on this issue instead of having a vote of confidence in itself.
Mary O'Mahoney
Killarney
Co Kerry
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