New drugs detected in the EU at the rate of around one per week, say agencies.

Customs officials are vigilantly monitoring the post to try and pick up illegal head shop-style drugs.

The owner of a chain of headshops faces up to 10 years in prison, fines of up to €120,000 or both after pleading guilty to importing illegal medical products and selling the “Viagra-type” drugs wholesale without a licence.

The owner of a chain of headshops faces up to 10 years for illegally importing Viagra-like products.

The cabiinet has approved the placing of 10 more so-called “legal highs” under the Misuse of Drugs Acts.

The Minister of State, with responsibility for Drugs Strategy, Róisín Shortall T.D., announced today (Tuesday, 1 Nov) that the Government has approved an Order declaring a further range of “legal highs” to be controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Acts.

The so-called legal high Ivory Wave will become a class B controlled drug, the Government has said.

Ireland’s young people remain the biggest users of “legal highs” in the EU as the number of synthetic drugs coming on the market increases at an alarming rate, a report has stated.

Banned head shop drugs are still widely available on the internet, while Customs officials have made 23 seizures already this year, it emerged yesterday.

Recent legislation has largely shut down the retail “head shop” trade in psychoactive drugs, but controlling internet-based purchases of the drugs remains a challenge.