Ireland has accidentally declared some hallucinogenic drugs as legal after the Court of Appeals declared unconstitutional a drug law that governs the possession of these controlled substances.

The reason for the High Court's declaration of invalidity of the measure is because it supposedly did not pass through the required consultation with the Irish Parliament, or the so-called "Oireachtas." As a result, the possession of drugs like ecstasy, benzodiazepines and new psychoactive substances better known as "headshop drugs" have been declared legal, at least for now.

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The Court says the practice of sporadically adding and updating new illegal substances into the law results in a legal loophole, because only the Parliament has the exclusive privilege of creating new laws. This privilege is guaranteed in Article 15 of the Irish constitution.

The law that has just been declared unconstitutional by the Court is the "Misuse of Drugs Act" of 1977, which had declared illegal the use of crystal meth, ketamine, benzos and 'magic mushrooms."

For the past weeks, lawmakers have received information from some quarters that the Court of Appeals was poised to issue such a controversial ruling. But the legislators chose to keep this information confidential.

Now, Parliament members are scrambling to have a new law that will remedy the situation.

An emergency session of the parliament has been called to pass a new legislation that will re-criminalize the possession of these drugs.

The new law will take effect only when it has been signed. The signing could happen by Thursday.

The implication of this is that some so-called "Class A" drugs will be legal until Thursday night.

Amid this legal challenge, Ireland Health Minister Leo Varadkar clarifies that while possession of certain drugs is temporarily legal, the sale, supply, exportation and importation of these substances remains illegal.

"My objective as Minister of Health is to protect public health, and that's why we are goingto bring this emergency legislation to ban the possession of these substances," the health minister adds.

Varadkar says the Health Department may later on consider the filing of an appeal with Ireland's Supreme Court to question the decision of the Court of Appeals. But he says this legal move will have to wait for a later time.

For now, "a situation whereby nothing was done immediately cannot be allowed," sad Varadkar.

The law that the three-judge court had specifically declared unconstitutional is also the same one that governs the legality of "methylethcathinone." The drug is more popularly known as 4-Mec or "Snow Blow."

The Court of Appeals verdict, however, says the ruling affects only certain drugs, and it has no implication on 125 other banned substances such as cannabis, heroin and cocaine.

Tagsdrug law, hallucinogenic, Misuse of Drugs Act, ecstasy