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Legislation targeting head shops selling new psychoactive substances and changes in drug‐related psychiatric admissions: A national database study

New psychoactive substance (NPS) use can negatively impact mental health and may result in drug‐related psychiatric admissions (DRPA). Irish youth reported very high rates of NPS use by international standards, the most common being synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones. This occurred in the context of a rapid expansion in specialist high street shops, called head shops, selling NPS in 2010. Government responded to public protests about head shops by enacting legislation in May and August 2010 to end this trade. Many academics argued that such actions were futile. We sought to determine if changes in head shop activity coincided with changes in DRPA.