Thanks to an inadvertent legal loophole, Ireland has just temporarily legalized the possession of a number of drugs including ecstasy, crystal meth and psychoactive mushrooms.
On Tuesday, the country's Court of Appeal found parts of the 1977 Misuse of Drugs Act to be unconstitutional over a legislative technicality. After the Act was first passed 37 years ago, successive governments have added drugs to its "banned" list. But as the BBC reports, since both houses of Irish parliament hadn't signed off on the new additions, those amendments have now been declared invalid.
Some 125 drugs mentioned in the act's original language -- including heroin, cocaine and cannabis -- are still illegal in Ireland. Substances banned after that, however, are now technically legal to both possess and use.
A release from Ireland's Department of Health, published following the court's decision, hastened to add that the "sale and supply of psychoactive substances remains an offense under existing legislation."
Irish lawmakers are now scrambling to close the loophole; they intend to pass emergency legislation to "re-instate the status quo" as soon as possible, likely by 12:00 a.m. on Thursday reports the Washington Post.
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