Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 9 July 2024
Committee on Drugs Use
Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation of Drugs: Discussion (Resumed)
7:00 pm
Ms Fiona Wilson:
Drug testing is really interesting because it was much more useful when people were afraid of fentanyl being in their drugs. Health could provide drug testing services and if fentanyl was detected, an individual knew to avoid those drugs or make sure they were using in a supervised way. The problem now is that everyone who is entrenched in street-level drug use is looking for fentanyl. It is not helpful to have drug testing that determines whether fentanyl is in the drug supply because fentanyl and benzodiazepines are in almost all of our illicit street drugs these days. People are seeking them because they become addicted to both of those substances.
We have drug checking sites, but they are limited. From a policing perspective, we have made it very clear that although we support drug checking and safe supply programmes, the initiative needs to be lawful. That is the police position with respect to drug checking and the utilisation of some harm reduction services. What was the second question?
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