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The Joint Committee on Drugs Use today published its Final Report, in which Members recommend the repeal of Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 in order to fully decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use.
161 recommendations are made in the report across family and community supports; kinship care; intergenerational trauma; addiction, sports and wellbeing; young people; substance use and neurodiversity; women, drug use and addiction; the National Drugs Strategy; nitrous oxide and other inhalants; and legal and policy issues.
The Committee was made up of 14 members, nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.
Reacting today, one TD said that the report “sends the wrong message to Irish families,” and that decriminalisation would not make drugs safer.
Another said that people would be shocked to learn that heroin and coke would be among the drugs decriminalised for personal use, if the recommendations of the report are to be implemented.
“It makes them more normal,” said Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn, who said that families across his own constituency, Cork North Central, have buried children because of addiction “that started with something somebody once called harmless.”
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said: “First of all people will be shocked that heroin and coke would be included in this. Decriminalising drug possession would be a backfire and would lead to personal drug use becoming socially acceptable.”
The party said today that decriminalisation would normalise drug use in Irish society.
“Walk through any Irish city centre today and the smell of cannabis is everywhere. That did not happen by accident. It happened because enforcement has already weakened and tolerance has crept in,” Deputy O’Flynn told Gript.
Deputy Ken O’Flynn said that the report would “accelerate that drift.”
“Nobody disputes that addiction needs a health response. But health-led and consequence-free are not the same thing. Cocaine, cannabis and other so-called gateway drugs do real and lasting damage.
“Before this committee asks the State to step back from enforcement, I want to see the basics in place. Where is the national addiction treatment capacity plan? Where are the residential treatment beds?
“Where is the funding commitment behind the community services this report leans on? Until those questions are answered, decriminalisation is not reform,” added the politician.
“It is the State walking away from the problem and hoping byelaws fill the gap.I will not support a policy that tells young people drugs are an acceptable part of everyday life on our streets.”
Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats said: “The Committee has concluded that the personal possession of drugs for one’s own use should cease to be treated as a criminal matter and should instead be met with a health-led approach. This is not a marginal adjustment. It is a recognition that criminalising people for their own drug use has not reduced harm, and that a different approach is both possible and overdue.”
Deputy Gannon said: “This report has its origin in the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use, which set out 36 recommendations in January 2024. The Assembly’s work was the most comprehensive examination of drug use ever undertaken in the history of the State.
“Over many months, a representative cross-section of the public heard the evidence, considered the arguments, and concluded that drug use in Ireland should be approached primarily as a public health issue. That finding has guided this Committee’s work from the outset, and it is the frame within which this report should be read.”
Aontú, however, said that the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use “would be a mistake and would normalise drug use in society.”
Deputy Peadar Tóibín said: “This is removing the criminal element and deals with drugs like they are a minor road traffic offence. It’s legalising by another name.
‘THE PURPOSE OF A LAW IS A DETERRENT’
“There is already a very permissive attitude towards cannabis in particular, as anyone who walks through our cities knows. It’s everywhere, and it’s awful. From other cities’ experience, that gets much worse.”
Mr Tóibín said that the “purpose of a law is a deterrent,” and that most people want to remain within the law.
“This is a deterrent for most people. Only 10% of the population use drugs on a regular basis. This is far lower than alcohol,” he said.
“It is much easier as a parent to persuade a child not to take drugs given that it’s illegal. What would the state decriminalisation of heroin do to the status of that drug in the minds of a young person? Decriminalising possession for your own use is tacit state approval.
“Drugs have serious effects, even at the lower end of the scale. For example, cannabis has been strongly linked with psychosis and schizophrenia. Its leads to depression. It leads to withdrawal from so much of healthy life.
He said that on one hand the government “is talking about banning cigarettes because it causes lung cancer while at the same time decimalising smoking hash that causes lung cancer.”
“Advocates of this say it can be replaced with drug rehabilitation clinics, and supports and facilities. But there is no reason the two things can’t exist at the same time. You can have a health approach at a justice approach at the same time.
“The argument that it increases those seeking drug treatment is spurious. It hasn’t worked in a number of countries such as Canada and Portugal, where it was a failure. Instead it led to open air drug markets and a huge increase in public use. That’s the reality of it.”
“It did not drive-up people accessing therapies and it did drive up public use. Public use becomes widespread. There is an initial treatment increase and then that falls right back.
They are not decriminalising supply, so this leaves the supply with criminals, with all of the murderous damage that this makes,” added the Meath TD.
“Any drugs policy must have as its objectives fewer users, fewer lives destroyed by addiction, fewer people have their mental health damaged by drug use.
“Decriminalization of drugs can lead to increased in drugs use. It can lead to increased levels of harm. It can lead to increased overdose and deaths.”
Deputy Gary Gannon, meanwhile, said: “The conclusions in this report are agreed conclusions, reached not by avoiding disagreement but by working through it. On an issue that is too often reduced to a political dividing line, I am proud that this Committee found common ground in the facts. I thank every member for the seriousness and good faith they brought to the work.
“The Joint Committee on Drugs Use recommends that this report be considered by the Department of Health, the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, and the Department of the Taoiseach, and that the matters arising from it be debated in both Houses of the Oireachtas.
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