Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very interesting to read the Official Report of the Irish Parliament when it was introducing the drugs Act. It took a few years to pass. Most of the commentary at the time did not support criminalisation at all. Politicians very much spoke about how they did not feel people should be criminalised for possession of drugs. They then set up a special committee, which at the time - this is going back 40 years - also recommended that the State should not criminalise people. The State ignored this recommendation. Its only intention was to fulfil the treaty obligations, and not because it made any sense and not because there was a rise in, or a need to respond to, particular drug use at the time.

In some places, we are spending 40, 50 or 60 years undoing legislation that was only ever enacted because of the power of the United States of America to endeavour to criminalise poor people and, as I said previously, because Harry Anslinger did not want to lubricate interracial relationships. He thought that marijuana would lead to white men having sex with black women in jazz places. When we trace it back, we have spent decades having to undo something that never made sense in the first place. Sometimes we might need to remind people of that instead of getting into the weeds of policing or the rise in drug use and so on. This was never about addiction or people. It was only really about criminalising certain populations. That was more of a statement than a question, so I will leave it there.