Any liberalisation would be accompanied by substantial investment in addiction treatments and counselling, perhaps funded by a tariff on the product.

Much importance is attached to a Citizens’ Assembly which may take place later this year to contribute to future policy discussions on a problem which threatens to overwhelm society.

What is clear is that a judicial process of punishment and constraint has failed, and society’s leaders have lost confidence and self-belief in the ability of the garda and the courts to keep matters in check. As we have commented regularly, we are in a war, a war we are certainly losing. The cocaine market, alone, is worth €10.5bn a year, with Irish crime networks fundamental to its operation.

Ireland has the second-highest proportion in Europe of 15-24-year-olds who have used cocaine and ecstasy at least once, says the Health Research Board. The UK stands at number one in this ignoble league table.

The “health-led” approach to consumption is a common mantra among reformers but that has to be squared with the reality that drugs are often linked to mental instability and decline, crime, violence, and problems in social, professional, and personal circumstances.

Just last week, Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard a gruelling case where a junior doctor was attacked by a teenager, part of a gang, as they walked home after work. 

The court heard that the assailant, 19, had 55 previous convictions of various kinds, and that both his mother and father were in prison. 

He was jailed for 18 months, and Judge Helen Boyle told him: “You unfortunately come from a terrible background... if you can stay away from drugs, you have a chance now to deal with your education.” 

Meanwhile the age at which people are recruited into the drugs culture becomes ever younger with a Blanchardstown, Dublin, task force reporting that the average age of drugs runners is now 12, with an increase in the numbers of young people under 18 becoming dealers. 

The youngest drug runner noted in their research was 10, while the youngest dealer was 12. Consumption of alcohol, cannabis herb, cocaine, benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety tablets), ketamine, nitrous oxide, ecstasy, and cannabis edibles have all increased.

These accounts provide a small indication of the size of the challenges which face those who believe that decriminalisation under appropriate protocols will turn a tide where decades of other initiatives have failed. One of the leading advocates, TD Paul McAuliffe, says the Republic’s laws are written to suit “people who like to pretend we don’t have a drug problem.” 

“Drugs are being sold on every street corner in Ireland. Drugs are a very big part of many communities and a very hidden part of other communities,” he told Newstalk.

If delegates to the Citizens Assembly and our political and community leaders want a live case study then they should look to the highly attractive and liveable city of Vancouver in Canada, and in particular the area around East Hastings Street.

In British Columbia the authorities have introduced a three-year trial amnesty for drug use. Adults in possession of 2.5g of ecstasy, heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, or methamphetamine will not be arrested or have their substances confiscated. 

Since 2016, when a public health emergency was declared, more than 11,000 British Columbians have died from overdoses leading to changes which are addressed in the same terms as those which are presaged in recent comments made in the Republic. 

Canada’s addictions minister says it is time “for a massive change in policy” while her counterpart in BC, Sheila Malcolmson, says: “Substance use is a public health issue, not a criminal one.” The scheme has many critics, including those who warn that deregulation encourages addiction rather than containing its harms. 

Ireland must see what it can learn from it before we contemplate embarking down a road from which there may be no turning back.