It’s going to be a crazy 24 hours in Ireland after a legal loophole made all illegal Class A drugs legal for a day. A 1977 law prohibiting the use of hallucinogenic drugs, including mushrooms, ecstasy and ketamine, was found unconstitutional this morning and therefore had to be thrown out and a new law had to be written and passed. However, even if that can happen ASAP, a provision in the new bill states that the law can only take effect the day after it’s been signed. This means that if the bill is signed tonight, buying or using — but not selling and supplying — Class A drugs will be legal “until midnight on Thursday.”
Here is what happened:
In what it deemed a “constitutional issue of far-reaching importance”, the three-judge Court of Appeal unanimously declared a regulation making the possession of methylethcathinone (known as 4-Mec or Snow Blow) illegal now invalid, as the 1977 Act was being added to without consultation of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament).
Which means (emphasis ours):
“…[A]ll substances controlled by means of Government Orders made under section 2(2) cease to be controlled with immediate effect, and their possession ceases to be an offence. These include ecstasy, benzodiazepines and new psychoactive substances, so-called ‘headshop drugs’”.
Party time! Alas, the nationwide bender will be short-lived. But that won’t stop anyone from getting married while high as a kite… Oh wait, it might. According to the new law allowing same-sex couples to marry, it might now be illegal for heterosexual couples to get married:
Directly translated back into English [from Irish] it stated: “A couple may, whether they are men or women, make a contract of marriage in accordance with law.”
The use of the plural created a difficulty in that one interpretation of the wording was that it distinguished only between female couples and male couples, but not between same-sex and heterosexual couples.
Alas again, the language has already been changed to allow those poor, straight couples to finally enjoy the privileges of matrimony.
Ahhhh, Ireland. Where the Guinness and whiskey flow through the veins of lawmakers like, well, their very own blood.
Source: The Independent, Irish Times