James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That concludes the round. I will invite members to come in a second time if they wish. Before that, I will take the opportunity to put my own questions.

We have touched on this matter already but something that often comes to mind is that there is a drug which many enjoy socially, and have it with friends and family, at licensed premises and at home. A small minority struggle with it and have it as a demon. That drug, of course, is alcohol. It has greatly varying strengths with some very low strength beers on the market going up to very strong spirits. Then there is the small unregulated space, such as with poitín, ouzo or grappa, depending on the country. Some are for sale legally and some are not. They have different potencies. Were alcohol to have been introduced to the market suddenly now or in the past half century, would it be in the same category as cannabis, for example or would it be treated differently? If it was to be introduced tomorrow and we did not have all the laws that we do, what could or should be done? Would witnesses be saying that we should criminalise or ban it? Would we say that people who have a bottle of Heineken in their back pocket should be sent to Mountjoy or would we say that they should use it freely? What could or should we do, were that the case?