Lynn Ruane (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is good to have this on record. As legislators we need to work on the idea of stop and search as a barrier to stopping the criminalising of people who experience addiction because the section that exists within the drugs Act is used for a broader purpose of being able to just stop and search carte blanche. It is using people who are in addiction and people who use drugs as a way to find other crime. From that basis I believe this is wrong in and of itself. Obviously there is the legal question about how we still ensure An Garda Síochána is empowered to pursue any other crime it sees fit, but the proposals for decriminalisation should not be put in the bin because of those other questions.

On the health diversion piece and the two strikes, let us consider the mental health aspect. In many cases there will be dual diagnoses and in many cases a lot of people also look at addiction at certain stages as a mental health issue. There are lots of different models in the way people want to look at things but we do not mandate people into care. Addiction is complex. If there is a threat of one caution, then two cautions, and then the person is going to be criminalised, and that this somehow would increase the health interventions to the point where somebody actually leaves addiction, it is disingenuous to see that as a health diversion. Every person should be offered it as an option but they should not be criminalised to access a health support. Obviously someone should be offered a health diversion if stopped and searched, but there is the issue of them being criminalised. We would have a lot of people in our communities who would not now be dead or who would not now be in addiction if the threat of a criminal sanction was the thing that stopped them being an addict, but it is not that simple. Will the representatives from the Department of Health and the HSE speak a little to the evidence for criminalising a person in addiction if they are caught in possession of drugs for their own use? What is the medical evidence and what is the medical rationale for keeping a criminal sanction on the Statute Book that criminalises the person? What is the actual health outcome for that person?