Society looking down on drug users 'through a pint glass', Citizens' Assembly hears

Fionn Connolly-Sexton from Co Clare told the assembly that his brother’s death was the result of mental health difficulties and drug use.

He said an overdose involving liquid MDMA set his brother down a destructive path and that he died by suicide at age 15.

Mr Connolly-Sexton said that coming from a rural area, many young people feel “trapped”, with the closure of various community services, more expensive public transport, and the flight of peers to work abroad.

“We need to take it easier on kids now,” he said during a session on the experiences of people affected by drugs.

You can’t look down on somebody using drugs through a pint glass. We need to accept young people are likely to do this.

He said there is “immense pressure” on young people, with things more and more expensive and friends going abroad.

“I’ve lost two friends through drug-related deaths, outside my brother," he said.

The assembly on drugs has been set an ambitious task by the Government of identifying the nature and scale of the drugs problem and examining the best way ahead, including the complexities of decriminalisation and legalisation.

In what is its second gathering this weekend, the assembly meets six times between April and October and is set to complete its report for the Oireachtas by year’s end.

Karl Ducque, who now works with young people involved in criminality and drug dealing, said his own drug use started at age 11 against the background of “household and community trauma”.

He said he started using heroin at aged 15/16 and was brought to his GP at age 16 and put on a methadone programme.

It was supposed to be a six-week programme, he said, but he ended up on it for 18 years.

He said this caused “carnage” for his own family and his community and said he was in and out of prisons and hospitals.

Mr Ducque said he lost his best friend through drugs, as well as three aunts.

He now works with the Try project in Dublin’s south inner city as a youth worker, assisting young people involved in antisocial behaviour, criminality, and dealing.

“As a youth worker you feel you are fire-fighting all the time,” he said, adding that addiction services have strict criteria for accepting people onto their courses.

He said he was in favour of decriminalisation.

I work with young people who smoke weed or get caught with a bag of weed at 15 —  it affects their whole lives. We should be saving our youth, not criminalising them.

The assembly continues with sessions on the experiences of frontline workers, families, and communities.

Tomorrow, the assembly will leave the conference room at Dublin Castle and conduct visits to two treatment centres, Coolmine and Merchant’s Quay Ireland, where members can talk to people first-hand.

The assembly’s first meeting last month heard from a range of experts and professionals on the national drugs policy, current trends and patterns in drugs use, as well as international and European perspectives on drugs use and policies.