Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree we must have an holistic and multifaceted approach but the one constant which has remained for the past 30 or 40 years, as far back as the 1970s, is the criminalisation of the addicts themselves. This policy has completely failed. We now have a situation where more people are addicted to drugs and we have more drug-related deaths than ever before. This policy is counter-productive and is failing. The previous Minister of State with responsibility for drugs, Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, initiated legislation on supervised injection centres. I note the programme for Government states there will be a health-led rather than a criminal justice-led approach to harm reduction. Given the commitment in the programme for Government, where is the legislation on the supervised injection centres?

See this speech in context