Mr. Dermot Gough:

Legalisation is a topical question. It is controversial. Should we do it? Could we do it? What would be the implications and the ramifications? There are areas outside Ireland which have done it. Canada, for instance, provides legalised heroin under supervised injection as a way to reduce the risk of HIV, hepatitis and overdosing. Safe injecting rooms are a way forward as well. The Ana Liffey Drug Project in Dublin is contemplating and examining the possibility of opening up safe injecting rooms. Cannabis is very much a hot topic at the moment. We are running a seminar tomorrow on cannabis, or weed, because we are seeing many problems and difficulties in this regard. A number of years ago, cannabis, or weed, was perhaps viewed as a soft drug. I am not sure I would agree with this. The attitude was "It is only cannabis." We are seeing serious problems, for young people in particular, caused by weed. It is being produced at home and its strength is much higher than it used to be. Drug-induced psychosis is a real issue. The amount of debt people are getting into buying cannabis has risen drastically. People are running up drug debts and getting themselves into difficulties with people in organised crime. I am not sure about legalisation. Alcohol is legal, and we know all the problems and difficulties we have with alcohol - so much so that we have included it in our national substance misuse strategy. We would have to think long and hard about this and look at other possibilities before we look at legalisation.