Parties urged to back drug decriminalisation
Should For Adopted Illegal That Citizens' Services Remain Decriminalisation But To Possession, Those In Health Diversion Remended Be A Assembly Of Drug Policy That With Along Possession Caught The
A coalition of community drug projects has called on all political parties to commit to implementing the recommendations of the citizens’ assembly on drugs and the Oireachtas committee on drugs — including their calls to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use.
Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign is also urging concentrated investment in the most disadvantaged of communities and in local drugs task forces.
The call comes as Fine Gael continues to harden its opposition to decriminalisation of possession, with its senior coalition partner Fianna Fáil limiting its support for decriminalisation to cannabis.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said on Tuesday that if a drug user, caught in possession, refuses to engage with health authorities that they should be referred to the criminal justice system.
This view was entrenched when Fine Gael’s election candidate for Cork South Central, Councillor Shane O’Callaghan, said that if drug users repeatedly offend and refuse to engage with addiction services that they “should spend some time in jail”.
The citizens' assembly recommended that drug possession remain illegal but that a policy of decriminalisation should be adopted for those caught in possession, along with diversion to health services.
The assembly left the legal mechanism for implementing this for the Oireachtas and the Government to figure out, saying there were “important legal and constitutional issues to be considered”.
The special Oireachtas committee on drugs sent an interim report to the Government before the election calling for decriminalisation and repeal of the law on possession — Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1997.
The committee contained active members from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
The Taoiseach criticised Fianna Fail’s policy on decriminalisation and cited what is outgoing Government policy — although it has never been implemented — that someone caught with possession on a first occasion, and possibly a second, could be referred to a health intervention, but if they refused to engage, they would be referred back to the criminal justice system.
Mr Harris said decriminalisation “runs completely counter” to the outgoing Government’s approach to vaping.
Sinn Féin's manifesto is silent on decriminalisation, while Labour, Social Democrats, Green Party, and People Before Profit support it.
In a statement, Citywide coordinator Anna Quigley urged all the political parties and independent candidates to “end the futile and failed policy of criminalising people who use drugs”.
She highlighted five key measures for the next Oireachtas to implement:
- End the criminalisation of people who use drugs by removing Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act;
- Invest in community drug projects as part of targeted investment in areas that are experiencing poverty and social exclusion, including inadequate housing and homelessness, lack of education and employment and mental health issues;
- Invest in community development so voices of people who use drugs, their families and communities, including minority communities, are brought back to the centre of policy;
- Recommit to the role of drug and alcohol task forces as a core part of the National Drugs Strategy and resource and empower them in building sustainable communities through a partnership interagency approach;
- Provide political leadership, with a super junior minister in the Department of the Taoiseach and a standing Oireachtas committee on drugs.
“As a result of the work of the citizens assembly on drugs and the Oireachtas committee on drugs, we now have a reason for hope, with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring about the radical change in drugs policy that is needed," Ms Quigley said.