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Chapter 1: What are the key recommendations from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drug Use?
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drug Use is publishing its final report this morning, which includes 161 recommendations. The committee was established to react to 36 suggestions made by the Citizens' Assembly on Drug Use in 2024, which was the most comprehensive examination of drug use ever undertaken in the history of the state. One of the main recommendations coming from this report is...
is the decriminalisation of drug possession for personal use, adapting a health-led approach instead of treating it as a criminal matter. To get reaction to this and some of the other recommendations in the report, I'm joined by the President of the Irish Medical Organisation, Professor Matthew Sadler, and the Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, Saoirse Brady.
Good morning to you both. Matthew, I might go to you first. This discussion, from the committee that possession of drugs for personal use should cease to be treated as a criminal matter and should instead be dealt with with a health-led approach. Do you welcome that?
We'll be very cautious about this, and I don't think we would welcome it perspectively. I mean, saying that we should deal with drug use as a health-led approach is a bit like saying, you know, in regards to smoking, we just, instead of stopping people smoking, we'll just increase cancer treatments, you know, that we'll deal with as a health-led.
You know, what we know from surveys of Irish university students is that one of the reasons for, about 50% of the reason why people who've never used drugs don't use drugs is the risk of of criminal prosecution. And that we know that that is a prevention of people from using drugs.
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Chapter 2: How does the proposal suggest a health-led approach to drug possession?
And when you talk about drug policy, there's two groups of people who have two different sets of needs, and we fully accept that. There's those who are already in addiction, but there are those who are not in addiction who have never used drugs. And the easiest way to prevent somebody from falling into addiction is to prevent them from ever using drugs.
Decriminalisation, I do dispute the finding that they say that it doesn't increase use of drugs. I would argue that in countries If you look at Northwest North America, British Columbia had a derogation on decriminalization, which they ran for three years, and now they have stopped it because it was unsuccessful. And they say they discriminalize using drugs for personal use.
And the experience from what I've read in the literature from British Columbia is that actually what has happened is they've just created different pathways for people into the criminal justice system. whether through public order offences or specifically and significantly worrying through to driving offences. So we would have a very big concern about this.
The health treatments for drug use are very poorly resourced in Ireland. But actually, we have to be realistic that actually the treatment effects of it, the treatment of addiction isn't fantastic. There's very few addiction treatments that have a higher than 20% abstinence rate or recovery rate. Addiction treatment is about as successful as treatment for brain cancer and has a high mortality.
So the easiest way to prevent health effects from drugs is to stop people using drugs.
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Chapter 3: What concerns does Matthew Sadlier raise about decriminalization?
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.
OK, I want to bring in Saoirse Brady, Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. What's your view on this proposal, Saoirse?
We really welcome this proposal, David. I suppose, you know, for very many decades now, we've seen that criminalising people and individuals for using drugs drugs for personal possession has not worked. We look at this in terms of people being ensnared in a criminal justice system that just cannot meet their needs.
And we really welcome the fact that the committee's report actually recognises that drug use, addiction, poverty, trauma and exclusion cannot be effectively dealt with in the criminal justice system. And I suppose if we're thinking about it, you know,
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Chapter 4: What evidence supports the argument against decriminalization?
Matthew's mentioned there that having a provision in law deters people from using drugs. Actually, the committee does address that issue. It says that decriminalising people, and we are talking about decriminalising people and not drugs here. are not likely to result in increased consumption.
And where they think it might have, he's referred to examples there, they've put in place measures to kind of suggest how you could deal with that in the same way that we deal with alcohol. And I suppose that public consumption of drugs can be better dealt with by having consumption rooms.
And we were really pleased to see Merchants Quay Ireland have their licence renewed for the safe injection facility. And again, the committee looks at that and talks about actually having safe consumption rooms for drugs other than those that you inject. But what this all comes down to, I don't disagree with Matthew that we need to educate people.
And IPRT is a member of the Irish Coalition for Drug Reform. One of the key things that we want to do, and we really welcome this report because it isn't just making a recommendation in isolation around decriminalising drugs. drugs for personal possession. It's talking about all the prevention measures that go around that. It's talking about educating people and the real need for real education.
Chapter 5: How does Saoirse Brady view the proposal for decriminalization?
And when we talk about a health-led approach, we're talking about people having access to the supports they need when they choose to access them. And at the moment, you know, the committee also, it's so comprehensive. It talks about reducing short sentences and looking at alternatives and people actually accessing support that they need to turn away from drug use where it is causing harm to them.
And, you know, it's the policies that we currently have. They are not working. They are failing people. And we see that with, you know, almost 6,000 people in prison today. If we could reduce the pressure on the prison system, you know, have people access support in the community, it would benefit everyone.
Yeah, Matthew, I suppose the argument is that locking somebody up for holding a small amount of drugs, which is only for their own possession, is probably not helping the situation.
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.
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Chapter 6: What alternative solutions are proposed for drug-related issues?
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.
And to an I say significant, I'm talking an increase of that because it is likely when I worked in community psychiatry and working here in psychiatry in city centre Dublin, at least over 50% of our presentations, ultimately the cause is drugs, is cannabis use or cocaine use is ultimately the cause. This is going to increase that level, which is going to increase the level of presentations.
And in order to cope with that, the services are already breaking at the seams, we need, we were talking about a 20 to 25% increase in funding in mental health services, I would feel, in order to cope with the health-led approach.
Okay, Saoirse Brady, I mean, Matthew has quoted the example of British Columbia. The report itself says that decriminalisation is likely to lead to more drug use in public spaces. I mean, it seems to stand to reason that if you remove a sanction, if you remove a sanction, you will encourage more use.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of decriminalization for public health and safety?
It doesn't actually say that. It says it could lead to more consumption, but they actually said they don't believe it will here in Ireland. I suppose we wouldn't... It's very costly. The criminal justice system costs a fortune to administer. And we recently released a report called From Punishment to Prevention, which really chimes with the committee's report here.
And what we call for is a justice reinvestment model. And to take the money, like, so for example, it costs ā¬103,000 to keep one person in prison for a year. And I accept that not everyone goes to prison for prosecution of Section 3, but it can, once you get that criminal conviction, it can lead you
to having very little choices in terms of access in employment, education, and sometimes it does lead to further criminality. So, you know, we really welcome the fact that spent convictions is part of this report as well. But if we're talking about reinvesting the money that you would spend in terms of bringing people to court
you know, interaction with the GardaĆ and then imprisonment in certain instances, that money would be much better spent and maybe we would have the money to invest in mental health services, in proper addiction services and in youth work, community engagement services and family support, all of which the committee report addresses. very comprehensively. It's a very lengthy report.
We haven't had it very long, so I haven't had a chance to go through it in detail. But I am so impressed at the person-centred approach it takes. And it addresses all of the concerns that are out there about what drugs can do to individuals, families and communities. And it talks about ways to prevent that from happening and to actually prevent more drug use.
It is not encouraging drug use in any sense. And I think we need to just be mindful of the fact that we are talking about decriminalising people here, people who go on to try and access education, employment, get housing and insurance and can't do that when they have a conviction for a simple possession for personal use.
OK, well, as you say, we've only just got the report. No doubt we'll have plenty more discussion of it in the days and weeks to come. But Saoirse Brady, Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and Matthew Sadler, President of the Irish Medical Organisation, thank you both very much for your contribution this morning.
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