Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all the witnesses for being here, especially Mr. Duffin. We have talked about this many times and it is good to see us at a point where an Oireachtas committee is considering a health-led approach. It is my view we should move towards such an approach. As the people who are interested in this committee are all in the same space, sometimes we are preaching to the converted, so I want to ask some questions people who are not engaged might ask to get them into the report and the record.

The issue of drug-related intimidation and drug debt is a really interesting one because obviously if we were to go for a health-led approach or a decriminalised approach as opposed to a legalisation approach, it is likely drug debt would still exist. Decriminalisation is unlikely to change the spectre of drug debt because we are still engaging with the illegal drugs industry, it will still exist, and so on. It shows decriminalisation is not a solution on its own and this has to be far wider. Are there recommendations related to drug debt that Mr. Duffin thinks might be useful?