Doctors will also have to comply with far more strict regulations regarding the prescribing of these medications, to avoid leakage onto the black market.
The long-awaited laws —first drawn up in 2013 — will include benzodiazepines, a group of anti-anxiety drugs, and Z-drugs, hypnotic medication, under the scope of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
The regulations, commenced yesterday by drugs minister Catherine Byrne, mean that restrictions that apply to drugs like heroin and cannabis will now apply to these substances.
Possession, as well as sale, will be a crime if a person does not have a specific prescription.
Gardaí and drug projects have highlighted the effects of these drugs on the street for many years.
“You stand outside the local [methadone] clinic in the morning and there is a crowd outside openly selling these drugs and there is little we can do,” said one senior garda in Dublin.
Another garda source said there has been a “huge increase” in the involvement of organised crime in the trade.
Source: Cormac O'Keeffe, The Irish Examiner, 05/05/17
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