Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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I welcome our witnesses. I appreciate the conversation in terms of the identification of the narrowness between the consumer and the criminal under this system. Mr. Leitão da Silva spoke about the resources the police have available, and in previous committee sessions we spoke about the best use of those resources under a health-led approach.

What is Mr. Leitão da Silva's experience of non-problematic use of drugs? How has Portugal diverted people into health programmes and what is the best use of resources? The reason I asked this question is because we have a finite amount of resources in our health system and I am concerned that under a diversion model, we would end up with a significant number of non-problematic drug users in places that would be better used by people with serious addiction.