Professor Colin O'Gara

So if you put these people into a health system, some, not all of course, but some will benefit from that.

You will have a cohort of people as well.

who will take drugs, go through the health system and get off and won't be criminalised, of course.

But I think the big picture here is that we have to move towards supporting people who are using drugs and who can be helped.

Well, the international model is that you would be in front of what's called a dissuasion committee.

So you would essentially enter, instead of going down the route of a court appearance, you would be engaging with a committee, some of whom will be health professionals, and you'll be offered the opportunity to engage in treatment of some sort.

So obviously, if you don't want to engage in that treatment, that would be, you know, that's not going to be useful.

But again, it comes back to, you know, this idea that really when people are using, you know, are you going to give somebody a criminal record, for instance, for the future?

They're not going to be able to travel because they have been using drugs at this particular time.

I think, you know, often I do see people in that situation.

And I think that's pretty futile, actually.

So I think we need to look at other mechanisms.

And that's just one end of it.

At the end that I deal with, which is the addiction piece, it's absolutely clear that we cannot continue to treat people in the way that we have in criminalising them when really what they need is support.

Yeah, no, you're absolutely correct, Ciara.

I mean, the key issue here is, I mean, the committee has come up with some excellent suggestions.

It's wide ranging, it's very well informed, it's evidence-based.

Now, the next piece is how do you implement that?

And there is a long-term history of diversion of resources away from mental health and addiction services, a vision for change.

2006 would have highlighted the diversion away from mental health services of key resources to the rest of medicine.