Recent years have witnessed vocal public concerns over the use of a variety of psychoactive substances colloquially known as 'legal highs' and their unregulated availability from so-called 'head shops'. The explosive emergence of these substances and their ubiquitous presence throughout Ireland has rendered the traditional method of control under the 18877-2007 Acts cumbersome and ineffective. Thus, the controversy ignited by the prevalence of legal highs and head shops has led to the preferred solution of the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010.