Dr. Eamon Keenan:

I thank the Minister of State and I thank the Deputy for his question. The Minister of State highlighted the report and the working group that identified that we should be looking at health diversion for people who are caught in possession of drugs for personal use. There is a working group looking to implement that. The plan is that if a person is caught in a possession of drugs for personal use, in the first instance, that person will be directed to the health service for a screening and brief intervention. The HSE has been provided with money to set up that screening and brief intervention service, but there are legislative issues that need to be addressed to allow that referral to come in to the HSE. If we get a person coming in to us in that regard and we identify that the person has a problem, we can move him or her towards a health-based intervention. That is the idea behind health diversion. We are committed to that. The implementation working group is committed to it.

In the second instance, a person caught in possession could move down the route of an adult caution so that they do not end up with a criminal conviction. The Deputy is correct with regard to the significant impacts a criminal conviction could have on a young person. We are very much committed to trying to make that work so that a person who is caught can move to a health-based intervention. The working group did not go down the route of decriminalisation. In that context, I refer to the differences in legislative policy in Portugal and Ireland. Portugal can introduce a civil sanction, whereas we have been advised by legal representatives that we cannot have a civil sanction for individuals. It is worth pointing out that as well as decriminalisation, Portugal invested significant amounts of money in developing its addiction services. It was not simply one issue that led to improvements in that area.

The point being made by the Minister of State in respect of cannabis is that there are harms associated with it and we do see people presenting for treatment with cannabis. It is interesting that a recent report by the Tallaght drugs task force found that the drug causing most harm in that community was cannabis. Let us not move away from the fact that cannabis can cause harm. Rather, let us get people who are having problems associated with cannabis into the health service.