Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for all the work they do, much of it unseen and much of it necessary. This builds on the meeting we had last week with the Prison Service when we discussed cultural and societal inequity. Much of the discussion today deals with the vulnerable in our society. Dr. Cullen highlighted that many people who take drugs for pleasure do not seem to run into addiction problems for whatever reason. Those who use drugs to mask emotional pain are the ones who become caught up in drug addiction and are often also those who come from disadvantage.

Talking about culture, the health area is something I have been close to for years. One of the stigmas around drug use is that people waiting in an accident and emergency department to see a doctor believe that the drug-addicted people who are also in the accident and emergency department have a problem that they could get rid of if they wanted to. People may have an illness or a family member may have an illness and they are trying desperately to get seen. That is just a small part of it but it is a simple example of how we stigmatise drug users and categorise them as people who could change their situation if they wanted to. As the committee spends more time listening to people, we get to understand there are deep-seated psychological and trauma issues underlying drug addiction.

In his opening statement, Dr. Cullen spoke about drug use versus problem drug use and not continuing with prohibition. He went on to say that we need to move to regulation, licensing and bringing drug supply under public government control. How would he envisage that happening in reality? I ask him to explain the mechanism that would underpin that policy.