Dr. Cian Ó Concubhair:

I will preface my comments by saying I am not an expert in international law and to take what I say with a pinch of salt, a grain of sand or however the Deputy wants to characterise it. The thing about the UN single convention and its impact on drug policy globally is the reason states adopted it initially 50 years ago - for example, the Netherlands adopted what is probably the least desirable model towards legalisation and I do not recommend the route it has gone down; it is moving away from it toward a fully legalised route - was a concern about sanctions, particularly financial sanctions from the United States for signatory states that departed from its interpretation of the convention.

That has changed quite a lot because US policy on drugs, of which the committee has heard evidence, is changing quite a lot. Now, the more punitive, pro-prohibition states are Russia and China. My understanding is a state would not necessarily have to withdraw from the UN Single Convention if it was to push for legalisation. The experience in the United States and in European jurisdictions is that it is not necessarily necessary to do so and there will not be any sanction. If a state was to push towards legalisation, there would probably have to be some form of withdrawal from some of those international treaties.

In the context of EU law, the committee has probably heard evidence, and may be aware, that in Germany, the original plan had been to fully legalise and to have a commercial model of legalisation of cannabis, but the fear was EU law and a framework directive from approximately 2008. That was viewed as potentially - and I say potentially and not obviously - being an obstacle to full legalisation. A view was taken that the social club model fitted within the criteria and the wiggle room the State had to legalise a substance. The committee has heard from other people that this could apply to other substances too. There were Germany lawyers writing about this at the time when Germany was going down this road. The framework decision does not have an enforcement mechanism from the Commission and, without that, it does not really seem clear, if a state was to adopt a full legalisation approach, there would be any consequences from the EU. It is not entirely clear. It is also not entirely clear to me how a state would withdraw. I am not an EU lawyer. I am not sure how a state would withdraw from the framework decision. A lot of this will be guided by what Germany does. If it continues towards a more commercial route, it will probably mean it is fine for everyone else to do it as well. I hope that answers the Deputy's question.