Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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I want to come back to the fact that what we are talking about here would be quite a cultural and societal shift.

When we put that inside a context that marginalised communities are most impacted by treating drugs in a criminal justice system rather than a health driven system, that suggests it is more than just treating drugs in criminal justice, it is actually about the issues within that community. The research here would show that drug use is the same across all communities and it is just that the most impact is felt in marginalised and disadvantages communities. I am cautious about the idea of us moving to a cultural change. As completely inadequate as it is at the moment, and I see it on the ground working with a drugs task force, at the same time I see the need for youth workers and providing supports in society to tackle poverty. If all of that was done, then who knows. There are other societal issues that feed into drug use and maybe we should focus on supports first. I would like to hear the comments of our guests on that.