Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Yes, since 1977. I accept and acknowledge that in recent years there has been a policy shift in the HSE and the Department of Health as regards this issue, and I think there has been a public shift, which is more important, that criminalising or marginalising people for drug use has been an abject failure. I do accept, as I said, this health-led approach of harm reduction, but my criticism of that is that it is largely lip service. If we do not talk about the elephant in the room, we could be in this position in the coming decades as to why people take drugs and trying to police our way out of it. Trying to police our way out of the proliferation of drugs is absolutely impossible. In those terms, we have to look at different approaches, and that is what this committee has been trying to do. I would argue that you have to look at the Misuse of Drugs Act, forms of regulation, forms of legalisation and decriminalisation of the person. With all that, probably a good example of what lip service accumulates is the adult caution scheme around cannabis. I ask the witnesses to correct me if I am wrong. It was introduced in late 2021. Cannabis was part of the adult caution scheme. Is that correct?