A CALL was made at a meeting of Monaghan County Council on Tuesday of this week to tackle the sale of head shop substances via the internet.

Sinn Fèin councillor Matt Carthy who raised the issue said that while the government had made some small steps in addressing the issue of physical head shops more needed to be done to limit the sale of harmful substances through the web. Cllr Carthy proposed that the council write to the .IE Domain Registry Limited urging them to investigate all head shop related sites which are advertised on the internet.

Cllr Carthy stressed that the proprietors of these particular head shop sites are exploiting loopholes to sell unregulated and dangerous drugs to the public including to children. “The Labour Party and Fianna Fáil have both suggested using planning laws to tackle the problem but this falls way short. It ignores the growing prominence of internet sales for which legal high dealers do not need to request planning permission because it’s a virtual shop,” stated Cllr Carthy. His proposal was seconded by party colleague Noel Keelan.

Cllr Carthy has called on the .IE domain registry to withdraw the domain names from head shop sites.