Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The figures are startling. Since 2021, 5,000 people have been issued with a caution for simple possession of cannabis, but in the same period, for simple possession, the figure for charges or summonses is 17,500. It is extraordinary, and that is why I am hugely critical of the lip service paid to harm reduction and so forth.

Getting back to the nub of this issue, we are talking about controlled drugs - heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis. These are all controlled drugs, but can somebody tell me who actually controls them? I know who controls them. It is not the HSE or the Department of Health and it is not the State; it is criminal gangs. As long as these drugs are controlled by criminal gangs, we will have a problem because there is no regulation and these people do not care. They just profiteer from misery in some cases. As long as that exists, we will have the same conversations constantly. There has to be a paradigm shift as to who actually controls these drugs. There will always be a demand for drugs, regardless of whether we agree with it. These are controlled drugs. Who actually controls these drugs? Can somebody answer that question?