Taoiseach to consider reforming drug laws
THE Taoiseach said he will give ‘careful consideration’ to any recommendations to reform drug laws ahead of the publication of a Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use report.
Leo Varadkar said the ‘war on drugs’ strategy and the criminalisation of drug users has not worked.
Today he will meet Paul Reid, the chair of the Assembly, as its final report is published.
The Fine Gael leader said he will wait for the Oireachtas to consider the content of the report before commenting on it.
People Before Profit TD Gino
Kenny said the report has made some 30 recommendations calling for reform of our drug policy.
He told the Dáil: ‘The Assembly stated that drug use and misuse was a public health issue rather than a criminal bond and, overall, the sentiment is that the status quo of criminalisation does not work.’
Mr Varadkar said drug use should be seen primarily as a public health issue not a criminal justice matter.
‘But that is very different from drug dealing, for example, and the production of illegal medicines and drugs,’ he added.
‘I certainly think that shaming people and blaming people and criminalising people isn’t an effective policy and has largely been rejected by the public, particularly younger people.
‘If it was the case that that approach and the war on drugs, and “just say no”, was a successful policy, it would have been successful 40 years ago, and it hasn’t worked. I think we all need to admit that.’
Speaking ahead of the report launch, chairman Mr Reid said: ‘The Assembly’s recommendations are a strong call of action to the Government that the State needs to take a far more comprehensive and coherent approach to drugs use in Ireland.
Deputy Kenny said: ‘It’s a very complex issue, but we have a more holistic kind of approach to why that happens and there’s factors such as poverty, disadvantage and deep trauma that goes on in people’s lives that people turn to.’
He said the key part of the report is legislative change.
‘We have the Misuse of Drugs Act since the 1970s, criminalising people, sending people through the criminal justice system, sending people through the courts, sending people to jail, it doesn’t work,’ Mr Kenny said.
‘Recommendations are a call to action’