Dr. Cian Ó Concubhair:

There is an awful lot to unpack in what the Deputy has said, especially in drawing in the example from the United States. The best thing to say is that, unless they are extreme libertarians, no one is advocating a commercial market for opioids. Most people advocating for the legalisation of certain opioids that are currently criminally prohibited envisage that being done in a very heavily regulated environment, probably controlled by medical practitioners. Nobody I am familiar with or who has given evidence to the committee already is suggesting that commercial access to extremely dangerous substances like opioids be opened up to the general public. I do not think that is what people are suggesting and it definitely is not my suggestion. I will come back to the point that, if the Deputy is concerned about decriminalisation, decriminalisation absolutely does not equal endorsement or encouragement of conduct. All it means is that the State is not attaching stigma to that conduct any more. The evidence is overwhelming in that regard. The State's strategy was definitely partly based on a view that, if we stigmatise conduct, it will reduce the incidence of that conduct. That has not been the experience. Usage rates in Ireland are broadly comparable to those in states such as Portugal that have gone down different pathways in their response. We have higher usage rates of many substances than are seen in the Portuguese context. As the committee has heard before from other experts who have given evidence, there is no relationship between rates of use and decriminalisation.

On steps towards legalisation, there are many different approaches that can be taken to legalisation. The experience in the United States seems to be that, if you go for a very commercial model of cannabis sale, you may get some uptick in consumption, although this may be temporary. To look at a more stable market, that of the Netherlands where cannabis has been de facto legalised for 50 years, cannabis usage rates in the Netherlands are the same as or lower than those in neighbouring states that have adopted a punitive approach.

I am conscious that I have gone over my time but, in summation, my message is that we should be careful about giving too much credit to the capacity of the State to impose a moral vision of what good conduct is, especially in these areas. As Mr. Glynn said, people have been consuming these substances for a very long time.