Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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Picking up on the themes from Deputy Martin Kenny and Senator Ruane, there are many different things here that are being mushed together, but there are separate conversations and separate streams here. On Deputy Martin Kenny's point about demand reduction, yes we had partial successes perhaps in the mid to late 1990s, as Senator Ruane mentioned, but much of that was driven by the Rabbitte report and by a concentrated effort to reduce demand for drugs. That involved a great deal of investment in communities and community development and tackling poverty, with the Combat Poverty Agency and the like. All these things have since fallen away. There are incredibly important things we should be doing. However, they are separate from the question of criminalisation. Demand reduction is essential and I would like to hear what Portugal is doing about that, but we will come back to that piece.

The question is whether criminalisation is causing more harm or whether it is causing a benefit. One of the things I look at is the huge number of drug deaths in this country compared to other European countries. We were a lot slower in rolling out naloxone in this country, partly because of the stigma and illegality. We have talked about the social impacts and the impact of criminalisation on supply for medical use. I would like to hear from Dr. McGovern and Professor Smyth about the impact of the stigma of criminalisation on things such as naloxone and access to treatment. I would also like to hear what Portugal is doing about demand reduction.

One of the questions from several members of the committee is one I echo and relates to the alternative supply routes, and if we have some time at the end we could explore that. Obviously, we do not want to be supporting organised crime. There are many alternative models. We have heard about Malta. I understand Spain has growing collectives and Switzerland allows personal growing. I would like to give some space to hearing about the alternative supply routes that take the criminal out of it and might introduce a healthy amount of VAT into the State coffers.

Will Dr. McGovern and Professor Smyth speak on the negative impacts of criminalisation in respect of access, treatment, naloxone, overdose and the like?