In 2015, the Irish government made headline news for all the wrong reasons – accidentally legalising hard drugs like ecstasy, ketamine and ‘magic mushrooms’.
That was because of a Court of Appeal ruling on a 1977 law which temporarily made them legal.
The embarrassing incident saw the government scramble to pass emergency legislation to reclassify those legalised drugs, while media across the world made light of the mistake.
Today’s Indo Daily looks back on the drug debacle, the years leading up to it when headshops were common in many towns and cities, and how an eventual ban was imposed to stamp out so called ‘legal highs’.
Mediahuis Ireland’s Group Head of News, Kevin Doyle joins presenter Siobhán Maguire, to explain what happened.