Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The information the Minister of State has given on increased demand in specific areas is very interesting. What actions could be taken to focus on those sensitive areas with a view to bringing more pressure to bear? For example, I know there are proposals to liberalise, as I would see it, the drugs regime. Other people might say this is necessary. An argument will ensue that this should be based more on medical support than on policing. I do not agree with that. I believe it is an essential part of the policing system that we have adequate prohibition in that particular area, because any liberalisation will not reduce the dependency on drugs in the country. It will increase it, and any indication to the effect that it is now okay to become involved in drug taking or drug peddling, and all that goes with it, is unhelpful. There are those who suggest this will remove the illegal element and give more time to the Garda Síochána for other matters. I do not believe this is the case at all. Previously in this committee we have had long submissions from those for and against. It was brought to our attention that all types of drugs are gateway drugs, some more serious than others. Any introduction of a more liberal regime can do nothing more than cause a greater proliferation of reliance on illegal drugs.

I will give what I hope is some useful advice. We need more drug treatment centres. These would help to deal with the issue after the event, but this measure would not interfere with the supply. As long as the supply is available, the supply will continue. Those who make large profits from the distribution of illegal drugs to young kids in primary and secondary schools, and in colleges will continue to do so. It is wrong to assume that liberalisation and making drugs more available will solve the problem. We have all dealt with families who have suffered the appalling effects of the drugs trade and the distribution of drugs to young people. We have all seen families beset by the problem of drug taking, over which they have no control at this stage. It has now accelerated beyond their control. There is no use trying to say that by giving a controlled amount over a longer period, the problem will be solved. It simply will not. Dependency will continue. It is just the same as if I just decided that I was going to have a glass of whiskey today and two glasses tomorrow and three the next day and so on.That will not cure a problem that I have created for myself.

There is a necessity for drug treatment centres in our hospitals, instead of having the accident and emergency areas of many of our hospitals lined with people who have serious drug or alcohol problems. This clutters up the through-put of accident and emergency departments. I do not blame the alcoholics or the drug takers for this. They do not know because this thing has overcome them. It is out of their reach and they cannot handle it. We need to look at it more carefully and recognise that what we need is a serious financial intervention in the supply chain.

We also need an intervention in the medicinal rescue system - methadone - but bearing in mind that methadone is intended to wean the sufferer off drugs, not to continue the supply of drugs, ad infinitum. Some people are of the opinion that this is the answer to the problem. It is not. Experts from the medical profession appeared before the committee previously. The MEP, Luke "Ming" Flanagan headed up a request for more money and more liberalisation and that everything should be available, almost to everybody. That would be a slight exaggeration, but that is the way I looked at it at the time. That is a dangerous route to go down.

The drugs issue is sometimes compared to prohibition in the United States and some people claim that lifting prohibition solved the problem. It did not solve the problem. The problem remained but was now spread over a wider area. I have never been in favour of prohibition. When it was lifted, consumption of alcohol increased by 4,500%. The moral is, supply, supply, supply. The budget will get bigger, the demands will be greater and demand-led remedies will be on the increase and will become increasingly expensive, unless we deal with supply as well as demand.