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Aus - Police wasting time on ‘alternative’ shops: retailer

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http://www.dailymercury.com.au/news/police-wasting-time-on-alternative-shops-retailer/2154813/

30th Jan 2014 6:00 AM
Updated: 31st Jan 2014 6:30 AM

Enchantments owner Ann Healy wants police investigating synthetic cannabis trafficking to stop targeting stores like hers. Enchantments owner Ann Healy wants police investigating synthetic cannabis trafficking to stop targeting stores like hers. Amy Marshall

ROCKHAMPTON retailer Ann Healy says police should stop wasting time and resources targeting alternative lifestyle shops when it comes to synthetic drugs.

The Enchantments owner's comments come after Happy High Herbs in Mackay won a legal battle for the return of more than $50,000 worth of stock seized in a police raid on June 3 last year.

Magistrate Damien Dwyer handed down his ruling in favour of the natural herbs store in a Mackay court yesterday, ordering police to pay more than $8000 in legal costs.

The court heard the warrant was restricted to where there was a "reasonable suspicion" items contained synthetic cannabis. However the officer in charge of the investigation allowed the seizure of items outside these parameters.

Ann, who had more than $10,000 worth of alternative products seized from her own store in 2012, said the ruling set a precedent for those in the industry.

"We're happy to abide by the laws and regulations to keep consumers safe," she said.

"But what happens is the wholesalers are on one side of the fence and the authorities are on the other - retailers get stuck in the middle. It's highly unfair."

Ann said there was confusion surrounding the legislation and often they were the last to know about any changes.

"We trust wholesalers to do the research," she said.

"We really aren't the bad guys - like a publican or a tobacconist we are just there to sell a product."

Ann said she hoped the ruling would encourage police to "get smarter" when it came to applying the law.

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I'm glad the police are trying to keep this crap off the shelves. Most of these retailers(not all!) aren't bothered with the side effects these create, as is said by the retailer in this article. These people have a duty of care. If their product is not safe they should not sell it. If laws need to be implemented and policed then so be it.

If you don't want to be policed, stop selling harmful shit drugs.

Just another reason why cannabis should be legalised. We don't need synthetic cannabis.

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Yeah, just like Coles and Woolworths should stop selling shit food filled with sugar and additives. To say nothing of tobacco and grog. Retailers should give a shit about what they are selling.

Shame that that stuffs legal though otherwise their shelves would be nearly empty after regular police raids on evil sugar and grog products.

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well said WW.

while you can rely on the tertiary sector for a certain standard of behaviour (if not regulated by regulations, then by plain competition) this creates a kind of foolish ignorance in consumers. as a consumer you have a responsibility to yourself, it's called caveat emptor. if you are willing to buy it, then i guarantee somebody is willing to sell it to you.

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I'm glad the police are trying to keep this crap off the shelves. Most of these retailers(not all!) aren't bothered with the side effects these create, as is said by the retailer in this article. These people have a duty of care. If their product is not safe they should not sell it. If laws need to be implemented and policed then so be it.

If you don't want to be policed, stop selling harmful shit drugs.

Just another reason why cannabis should be legalised. We don't need synthetic cannabis.

You seem to be arguing against yourself here. On the one hand, you're saying that our drug laws are flawed and need to be changed. On the other, you're saying that they need to be enforced better to protect people from themselves. Don't you see that to many authorities, pot is illegal for precisely this reason? To protect us poor peasants from our own stupidity in taking such a "dangerous drug"? How about we just take some responsibility for the things we put into our bodies, and stop blaming other people for our own damn laziness? If you break your thumb with a hammer, do you sue the hardware shop? Do we really need "warning: may be hot after heating" stickers on everything, or can we maybe start thinking for ourselves for a change? /rant

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You read a bit further into my comment than I even did.

Yeah people have a responsibility for the substances they ingest but these retailers are selling this stuff under the premise it's legal, and therefore safe. This is certainly not the case as is evident from the bad reactions these products have caused. If people are selling toxic products then something should be done to stop or educate them. If laws need to be put in place so be it. Again, they have a duty of care and they're failing badly.

Legalising cannabis would help a lot when it comes to curbing synthetic cannabinoids. I understand people would still use them (drug tests at work as an example)but there'd be no real market for them. The bong shops would have to sell the real thing or nothing.

Pot is not illegal for the reasons you think. Australia jumped on a bandwagon to brown nose.

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Sorry man, didn't mean to put words in your mouth, i just got a bit riled.

Yeah, I've heard about the history of marijuana laws, I was talking about how today's authorities justify keeping and enforcing those laws.

I may be mistaken here, but I was pretty damned sure that synthetic pot substitutes were already illegal, or at least in some sketchy dark-grey area, which was exactly what Ms. Healy was complaining about. If something is illegal then it can't be regulated. If you want retailers to advertise their products honestly (and good luck with that!) then those products need to be clearly defined under the law. For preference, they need to be legal and subject to the same safety-testing as any other legal drugs, as New Zealand has been trying to do. Because without safety-testing, how can you expect sellers to give accurate information about the safety of their products? - there is simply no real information out there for so many of the newer drugs. It isn't that sellers are actively withholding it, it just doesn't exist.

Yeah people have a responsibility for the substances they ingest but these retailers are selling this stuff under the premise it's legal, and therefore safe.

Seriously? If people are truly responsible for the substances they ingest, then they should know better than to confuse "legal" with "safe". Wasn't that your whole argument in promoting natural pot over synthetic cannabinoids - that pot is safe even though it's illegal? Anyone who realises that should also be able to make the leap to wonder about the opposite assumption, that maybe not all legal drugs are really safe.

Edited by Anodyne
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