What Happened When Class A Drugs Were Legalised In Ireland For Two Days

    BuzzFeed News popped over to Dublin to see what the fuss was about. TL;DR: not much.

    If you listened to the voices in Irish parliament on Tuesday, you wouldn't have been surprised to hear somebody faintly whisper: "We fucked up."

    That was certainly what the minister for health, Leo Varadkar, must have been thinking after the court struck out laws intended to ban certain drugs, unintentionally creating a legal loophole that meant if you were in possession of, or took, class A drugs within a window of two days on Irish soil, you were safe in the eyes of the law. However, buying and distributing such drugs – including Ecstasy, ketamine, and "magic mushrooms" – still remained illegal.

    As the Department of Health rushed to pass emergency legislation to bring the law into effect by Thursday at midnight, many revellers were excited at the prospect of a consequence-free drug party for 48 hours.

    The 24 legalisation of class A drugs in Ireland is just so ridiculous, Dublin is going to be absolutely mental

    Have just heard ecstasy, crystal meth & other drugs are legal in Ireland till Thursday. Who wants to catch the Dublin express tomarra lol 😉

    Soon enough, #YokeTuesday and #YokeGate – slang for ecstasy – were trending on Twitter.

    I normally cook my omelettes with egg whites only, but tonight & for one night only I'm putting in the yokes. #NationalYokesDay #YokeTuesday

    But despite the absolutely mental excitement on social media, BuzzFeed News wondered: Was it all hype? Would the streets of Ireland be flooded with jubilant displays of drugged-up people dancing to the beat of their own palpitations? Did anybody there actually give a shit?

    So we went to Dublin to find out.

    First things first: We needed to hear from the students. If there were going to be any daytime drug celebrations, they'd be the ones with the free time to host them.

    Besides, if there were ever an appropriate time for an out-of-touch reporter to awkwardly engage with young people about their use of illicit substances, now would be it.

    We arrived on student terrain in Dublin. Sadly, there were no demonstrations or parties dedicated to celebrating the government mishap.

    "No, I don't think anyone is embracing the loophole," Ross O'Brien told BuzzFeed News as he stood outside Trinity College. "Or at least I don't think any more than usual, anyway – I don't think many people care. I think when people can get it when it's illegal, they can probably still get it when it's legal."

    The 22-year-old student from Westmeath seemed more bemused by the government's accidental screw-up than excited by the possibility of consequence-free, drug-fuelled antics: "We found it quite funny, the Ireland government messing up – my friends and I were having a good joke about it."

    I then met Joe Mahon from Dublin and Jack Larkin from Meath, both aged 22, who were also students at Trinity. Larkin told me that the thing people should be concerned about is how the courts are reining in the power of the government. He did so while sporting an excellent jumper with horses on.

    "You're not going to see people outside parliament doing ecstasy," Larkin said. "But what's important is that the courts are striking down the government, who are overstepping their powers. From a societal point of view, that's interesting, because what was happening was that they were overstepping their mark and the courts came in and said, 'Well, actually, no: You have to legislate individually the drugs you want to strike down.'"

    Mahon added that he believed it was a social media farce. "A lot of people are saying there will be a load of parties and all that, but it's a load of nonsense. in reality, it's not going to happen."

    Stephanie Wallace-Chavanne, 24, from Dublin, agreed with Mahon: Although a lot of friends had been speaking about it on social media, she cared little for the excitement, but said that those who were taking advantage of the loophole would be "stockpiling" for the Trinity ball in April.

    "Last night people were like tinned fish," she said, speaking about the students in the outside area of a local bar. "They were in there trying to find pills and it was like, 'Hey, who cares if we're caught?'"

    Musicians and students Olly, Darren, Stephen, and Niall were standing outside of Temple Bar when I spoke to them.

    "The only difference is maybe someone will take more pills than they should," said Olly. "People are going to take it regardless of whether there's a loophole or not."

    Stephen mocked the response the controversy had had on social media: "Everyone's Facebook status is, 'Whoa, it's legal!' But they're just doing it for the likes."

    "Our government is the stupidest government on the face of the earth," Conor, a skater, told me when I met him after stumbling on a skatepark around the corner. His friends Andrew and Gary nodded in agreement. The trio suggested that the loophole might encourage some people to go "way too far with it", but that drug use for most would still be the same.

    "This drug loophole happened, and they made heterosexual marriage illegal – but they still haven't legalised same-sex marriage," Conor added. "That really, really annoys me."

    To be clear, while same-sex marriage is still illegal in Ireland, heterosexual marriage isn't. Conor was referring to news that on Tuesday, the same day as the drug loophole was revealed, the government was forced to change the Irish-language version of its forthcoming referendum on same-sex marriage because there was a chance it could make heterosexual marriage less than legal.

    A friend of mine from Canada living here less than a year, just surmised our nation in a FB status.🙈 #Ireland #yokes

    While walking around Dublin, I spotted several syringes on the floor by the side of the road. When I mentioned the drug loophole story to people, they pointed me to the junkies they "could spot a mile away" sitting on benches by the Liffey river, or hanging around the two phone boxes around the corner that were "notorious" for people shooting up.

    "Did you want to speak to any of the people over there?" one person asked, trying to help me navigate my next move. "They'll definitely be on the drugs you're talking about."

    I imagined the legal loophole meant very little to them, too.

    Later that afternoon, a Facebook event for a party called The Loophole Pop-Up Party was set up. Over 1,000 people clicked "attending" for a party hosted by Room 19 that was due to happen at Barnardos Square, Dame Street, at 11pm.

    Since the replacement laws were to due to come into effect at midnight, partygoers had one whole hour to enjoy their freedom.

    As it turned out, there were no crazy parties shutting down the streets of Dublin last night. Room 19 held one of its normal weekly club events, and an underground rave happened at the Turk's Head. But despite the media attention, it seems that drug consumption levels in the city were more or less the same as they would have been on any other Wednesday night.

    When I spoke to a police officer earlier that day about the force's response to the loophole, she seemed unfazed. She told me she was "too busy putting someone into a prison cell".

    Still, if there was one valuable lesson to be learned from, it was that young people living in Dublin find it hilarious to say Annie Oaks (i.e. "any yokes"; yokes is slang for ecstasy) over and over and over and over and over again on Facebook.