At the centre of today’s news story about how Ireland has legalised ecstasy, ketamine and magic mushrooms, sits Judge Gerard Hogan.

The judge made the unexpected decision to allow for the possession of some drugs in a ruling on an appeal this afternoon, with the backing of two of his judicial colleagues at the Court of Appeal who agreed with his assessment of Ireland’s drug laws.

In it, it’s clear that Judge Hogan was aware of the gravity of what he was doing, saying the appeal “presents a constitutional issue of far-reaching importance”.

Basically, the judge gave a judicial death certificate to a specific section of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1997 because it failed what is called the principles and policies test. This basically means that the legislature – i.e. the Oireachtas –  is meant to set out how a power should be used if it is delegating it to the government.

Arriving at his judgement, Justice Hogan said there was not enough guidance given in this case in section 2 (2).

He says that while the terms used in the title – misuse, dangerous, harmful – are “laudable and desirable objectives”, they do not constitute a “sufficient restriction on the more or less unlimited power of regulation” given to the government in relation to what substances or products that they can declare controlled drugs, and therefore make illegal.