It’s 10 years since Ireland legalised ketamine, meth and MDMA by mistake

Happy National Yokes Day to all who celebrate!

The bizarre set of circumstances came into effect due to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 being deemed unconstitutional by the Irish Court of Appeal, as the different houses of Government had not agreed on the new additions of the law in 2015.

Due to this disagreement, the Misuse of Drugs Act could not be applied, making several Class A drugs legal to possess and buy, including the likes of ketamine, magic mushrooms and crystal meth.

Many other hard drugs such as cocaine, cannabis and heroin were not affected by the ruling as they are banned under separate laws.

The following morning, an emergency act was introduced, but for 24 hours the purchase and possession of these drugs was entirely legal.

Speaking at the time, the then Health Minister Leo Varadkar said: "We had no way of knowing what the Court would decide today, but we prepared for this possibility.

"Legislation was prepared and approved in advance by Cabinet.

"The emergency legislation I am introducing today will re-instate the status quo ante and re-control all drugs that were controlled prior to this judgment."

However, it wasn't the only constitutional mistake of the day.

Ireland was headed for the same-sex marriage referendum on May 22nd 2015, and changes had to be made to the Irish-language text of the referendum.

This was because there were fears that the phrasing of the vote as Gaeilge would have accidentally made heterosexual marriage unconstitutional.

The wording was rephrased and the Marriage Equality referendum was voted through with 62.07% voting in favour of it.