Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

With all due respect, the past 45 minutes, in particular, of this meeting have been among the most excruciating I have ever had to listen to when speaking about drug use in Ireland. I cannot believe I am hearing it in 2022. A lot more that was wrong has been said in the past 45 minutes than the naming of a building in the city centre, but nobody picked up on that and intervened, such as myths being put forward about gateway drugs. I also take issue with the language that has been used, the moralisation of people's drug use and whether they stay on drugs or not, and that everybody needs to become abstinent.

I do not understand what is after happening here today. The Minister of State's statement said: "Let me be clear: a war on drugs is not an effective response to drug use." The past 45 minutes of this debate have been the complete opposite of that statement. The war on drugs has happened right in front of the Minister of State's eyes here today. I would like people to look back at what they have just listened to today. The war on drugs costs the most. It is discriminatory, moralistic, a breach of civil rights, and it criminalises poverty. If members want to focus on drug use, they would need to forget the type of drug that is being used. They need to look at poverty and marginalisation - everything that this Government has got a say on. Poverty should be ended and criminalised not people for their drug use. Everything that I have heard here today is opposed to decriminalisation and suggests that the war on drugs can work. Will the Minister of State explain to me what he means by, "Let me be clear: a war on drugs is not an effective response to drug use", because I have not witnessed that in this debate?