Matthew Sadler

And that, I think, are our major concerns.

And if I can say one last thing, the other thing that does worry me about the report is the fact that we need to also remember that

For most drugs of abuse, they're not produced in this country.

They're produced in the poorest countries of the world and they involve a very high level of coercion and violence against some of the single most vulnerable people in the world.

And if we are to enact this policy, then I do think Ireland has a responsibility because we create the market, but the chaos is experienced by people in South America and East Africa.

We have a responsibility to have some sort of international development programme where we have people

you know, where we support the people who are suffering because of the drug usage of people in this country.

No, I mean, criminalisation doesn't necessarily always mean punitive custodial sentences.

So, I mean, there is compassionate ways of doing that.

But as I say, the example from North America is that people access the criminal justice system through driving offences, through public order offences, through domestic violence offences.

And if drug use goes up, all of those three elements goes up.

And the committee did accept that it was likely to lead to more drug use in public spaces and to lead to a different pattern of drug use, which in North America has been found to increase these other activities and ultimately didn't really result in a massive drop in prison population, but just it was a different set of offences that people ended up being incarcerated over.

And that is our concern.

I mean, as I say, British Columbia ran the experiment for three years and then they stopped.

in January of this year, so between 2023 and 2026.

So, I mean, I think it is a very complicated issue.

I think this gives a warning.

The message is that it gives a warning to people, to a lot of people will take the message that with decriminalisation, that drug use is safe.

And I think as a final point, from a health and medical perspective, if this is enacted and passed into legislation, it will require a significant amount

increase in funding of mental health services across the country.