Mr. Nick Glynn:

I do not think it is unique. It partly depends on the different contexts in society and how conservative a police service is. Is it even called a police service? That varies in different countries. The point the Senator made, which is so true, is that this is not radical. This is common sense. This is looking at the evident. One of the things that is common among police forces globally is that they talk about doing things based on the evidence. There is a society of evidence-based policing that has chapters all over the world and yet they generally ignore all of the evidence on drugs and drug policy, legal regulation and harm reduction. They pretty much ignore all of that evidence. Maybe the radical thing is for policing to take this evidence seriously.

Police forces do not all think the same. There will be individuals at a senior level in the Garda who agree with this view. Seeking those people out when they are in positions of influence and providing them with the support, opportunities, insights and expertise to support these kinds of critically important initiatives absolutely needs to be done. There needs to be an appeal for those open-minded leaders in policing in Ireland who will publicly support this. They are there but they may not have not broken ranks yet.