The Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use has published its final report, along with 36 recommendations which include the introduction of a decriminalised model, following six months of deliberation.
Decriminalisation would see the law changed so that taking drugs within a certain context is no longer a crime, with the 100-person Assembly recommending regulation and oversight.
Chair of the Committee, Green Party TD Paul Reid, this week called for the “immediate” implementation of the findings, saying that Ireland had a “once in a generation” chance to decriminalise drugs for personal use.
One of the key recommendations included in the report is for the State to introduce a “comprehensive, health-led” response to the possession of drugs for personal use. Under such a model, it states, the State would respond to drug use and misuse “primarily as a public health issue rather than as a criminal justice issue.”
It states that while possession of controlled drugs would “remain illegal,” those found in possession of illicit drugs for personal use would be “afforded, first and foremost” extensive opportunities to engage voluntarily with health-led services.
‘MINIMISE OR COMPLETELY REMOVE POSSIBILITY OF CRIMINAL CONVICTION’
The report goes on to state: “Depending on how the legislation was designed, this approach would minimise, or potentially completely remove, the possibility of criminal conviction and prison sentences for simple possession.
“A member of An Garda Síochána, on finding someone in possession of illicit drugs for personal use, would refer that person directly to a SAOR Brief Intervention, designed to assess, inform, dissuade and prevent people from developing problematic drug use, and where appropriate, offer a person an onward referral to addiction services. This mirrors the practice in both Austria and Portugal, which both combine health diversion, decriminalisation and dissuasive sanctions, which the Assembly has heard about in some detail.”
Another recommendation made in the report is for drugs policy design and implementation to be “informed by service users and people who use drugs” as well as family members of those affected by drugs. In addition, the report says that the government should allocate additional resources to fund community-based and residential treatment and recovery services “as an alternative” to custodial sentences for people with problematic drugs use.
“Should the sanction of prison sentences for simple possession offences be removed entirely from the statute book?” is one of the key questions included in the report.
At the same time, the report says that Ireland’s National Drugs Strategy “should continue to prioritise the objective of reducing illicit drugs supply and associated structures, at international, national and local level within communities.”
Another report recommendation focuses on prevention programmes in schools, stating that the department of health and education, in conjunction with the HSE, should implement an age-appropriate school-based drug prevention strategy for primary school children, junior and senior cycle secondary students, and wider community settings, including parents/guardians and teachers.
The report also recommended that submissions from the general public and stakeholders should inform the National Drugs Strategy approach, adding that it had received almost 800 submissions – which will be published one the Assembly’s website once the Assembly has concluded its work and finalised its report.
The final recommendation included in the report references supervised injection facilities.
“The National Drugs Strategy should use evidence-based approaches to harm reduction, and take measures to reduce the barriers to implementing harm-reduction approaches without undue delay,” the report states.
It adds that such an approach could include “supervised Injecting facilities for relevant population centres; significant expansion of drug checking facilities and initiatives, including permanent drug checking facilities and non-festival environments; administration of naloxone, and consideration of safe consumption facilities based on international experience and best practice.”
The recommendations have been sent to the Oireachtas for approval.
It comes just over a week after it was announced that the first medically supervised drug injection facility is to open in Dublin. The facility is set to open on Merchant’s Quay in Dublin’s south inner city. As The Irish Times reported last week, the facility was first proposed at Cabinet in 2015, but was followed by delays and objections, including from a local primary school, before permission was finally granted in December 2022.
“The facility, where people who use drugs intravenously will be able to come in off the streets and inject safely under the supervision of a nurse, will open as an 18-month pilot initially. It will be located in the basement beneath MQI’s Riverbank location in the south inner city, and will operate seven days a week, for about seven hours a day,” the paper reports.
Also last week, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he was ‘open to’ the introduction of a medically supervised drug injection centre in Cork, while admitting he harboured ethical and legal concerns which would need to be addressed before providing a safe space for people to inject.
“I’d be open to it, but I’d be worried about the ethics from a State point of view,” he told the Irish Examiner.