Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 October 2024

Committee on Drugs Use

A Health-Led Approach: Discussion (Resumed)

9:30 am

Ms Paula Kearney:

I do not think anyone is suggesting that drugs are good. We all know that drugs do huge damage but we also need to trust society. I will give an example. Say it is Thursday night and I have to get up and go to work the next day but I decide to play bingo or something where I will have a few drinks. If I go out at the weekend to a party, I would probably have a couple of glasses of Captain Morgan. I can make that conscious choice that I will have a blue WKD. If things are regulated, there is an element of having informed choices, but what people are getting on the streets now is so dangerous. We have seen the level of overdoses happening. I do not think anyone wants a free-for-all for all drugs or whatever people want, but I do think we need to start being grown up about it and start looking at it realistically, because at the moment it is damaging communities and feeding gangland crime. We talk about people buying drugs and feeding into gangland crime. No, it is the policies that are doing that. Drugs affect all communities but the policy-----

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