Professor Alex Stevens:

I will start with the positives. There is a very positive aspect of drug policy in Ireland and the UK which is the provision of opioid agonist therapy. This has proven repeatedly to be effective in many international settings in engaging people in treatment, keeping them in treatment and saving their lives. In the face of escalating drug-related deaths in the UK, I have been advocating for an increase in the availability and quality of opioid agonist therapy and increases in the range of options available to people. That should include methadone and buprenorphine and depot buprenorphine, known as Buvidal, but should also include a wider availability of heroin-assisted treatment and the prescription of diamorphine for people for whom buprenorphine and methadone do not work.