Dáil committee calls for first medically supervised drug injecting centre
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A Dáil committee will call for Ireland’s first medically supervised injecting centre, planned for Dublin, to be opened as soon as possible, in a report to be published on Wednesday morning.
Plans by Merchant’s Quay for such a centre in Dublin is currently with An Bord Pleanála for a second time.
The report from the Oireachtas Justice Committee follows consultation by the committee on the present application of sanctions for possession of drugs for personal use. The committee members want planning issues around the plan to be resolved and for the centre to be “opened as soon as possible”.
The report will also call for mobile overdose prevention clinics to be given funding for areas which do not have an established treatment centre.
It is also set to recommend that the possibility of decriminalising drug possession for personal use be researched as one alternative to the current system.
Also contained in a draft of the report is a recommendation that Ireland should examine the approaches to drug possession for personal use in countries including Portugal, Malta and Switzerland, “to see which of the policies applied in these jurisdictions could be implemented in an Irish context”.
Further research should be carried out into the benefits or drawbacks of “social clubs” through which to “grow personal supplies of cannabis or other drugs outside of the black market”.
Also among the recommendations is that investments should be increased for treatments and services for drug users to tackle the issue as a health problem, with “enhanced education surrounding drugs and improved social interventions for those suffering from addiction”.
The report will also recommend that the Citizens Assembly on drugs be held as soon as possible “to engage in a wider discussion on the approach towards drug possession and drug use in Ireland”.
A number of witnesses appeared before the Justice Committee in July, to discuss the present approach to sanctions for possession of certain amounts of drugs for personal use. They included medics and people with experience of drug possession for personal use.