Having dithered and dallied over the proliferation of head shops for at least two years now, the decision to ban all psychotropic drugs for human consumption is a welcome move. Highly profitable head shops have been springing up on every high street, mainly because the government has been too slow to bring in legislation banning the substances they sell.

As a result, a whole new group of people have been enticed into drug experimentation. Some have been under 18s who, in the same way as they buy alcohol in rogue off-licences, have walked into head shops and been sold substances that are clearly harmful to them. Others are adults who, in our binge culture, have been attracted by the ease with which they can get legal highs. No contact with a drug gang, no chance of prosecution, just an easy hit bought through a highly accessible late-night hatch – probably while extremely drunk.

Justice minister Dermot Ahern's new law puts the onus on the head shop owners to prove what they sell is not a dangerous mind-altering substance if it is consumed by humans. If they can't do that, then they should shut up shop – or sell joke paraphernalia, or flowers, like they used to.