Dr. Cian Ó Concubhair:

My first response would be that the State decriminalising does not mean endorsing or legitimising conduct. As I have said, I do not believe it is the position of the Irish State that suicide is a good idea or that it is something that people should do but, for very good reasons, the State decided to decriminalise suicide in 1993. In the Fleming decision, the Supreme Court recognised that the State can take a neutral view in how it legislates on things. As seen in the evolution of tobacco policy over the past 25 years, we have seen that the State can also have very hostile attitudes to conduct that is legally permissible and that this can often be very effective in reducing consumption.

As to the impact on people, if the Deputy is worried about messages to the community, the committee has already heard quite a lot of evidence that decriminalisation does not necessarily lead to increases in use. There is no strong causal evidence. As drug use increases in other countries that have decriminalised drug use, such as Portugal, it is also increasing here, at least with regard to certain substances. To compare different jurisdictions, the Netherlands and France, at a high level, France takes a very punitive attitude to cannabis consumption while the Netherlands has effectively legalised it for nearly 50 years. Cannabis use is higher in France than it is in the Netherlands. There are plenty of other examples we could point to. What this tells us is that people use drugs for very many reasons and that these are often completely unrelated to their legal status. If the Deputy is concerned about a massive increase in use following a move to decriminalise or even to legalise substances, the evidence is not there to support those concerns. On substances that are legal for people to consume, such as alcohol, alcohol use has declined over recent years. That is not necessarily because of any major legislative or policy action on the part of the State. A lot of what is happening is related to a shift in cultural attitudes towards substance use that is completely detached from what the State is doing as regards interventions. Does that answer the Deputy's question?