Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Only for the vote on the fatal foetal abnormalities legislation tomorrow, I would not be here. I would be at the two semi-finals.

There is no police force or government in the world which can claim or demonstrate that prohibition of drugs is the solution to the problems surrounding drugs, or the problem of the drugs themselves, but thankfully there are many examples from all over the world of how relaxing drug laws brings positive outcomes for everyone involved. Such examples show how lending a helping hand to those who find themselves trapped in a cycle of drug use, instead of criminalising them for needing a substance to lean on, can help them lead stable lives and save communities and families much pain and sorrow. European countries such as Portugal and Switzerland have been showing us how progressive drug policy works for decades.

The most effective way to disrupt the gangs in Ireland is to take what is estimated to be a €1 billion industry away from them. The heroin trade is booming, and a recent UN report estimates that the Irish authorities intercept less than 3% of the heroin on the market. If we really wanted to disrupt that trade, care for those addicted to the drug and do away with the stigma that surrounds it, we would follow the example of the Swiss and legally prescribe heroin in supervised injection rooms to those who need it.

British doctors used to prescribe to addicts as a matter of course heroin that was manufactured by the British state, and it did not have a heroin problem. For decades, the number of heroin addicts in Britain never exceeded 1,000 and the addicts were mainly middle aged, from all kinds of social background and, according to doctors at the time, perfectly stable and healthy.

Addiction depletes one's day-to-day existence in many respects and is a source of human suffering, but under the safe supervision of doctors, some of what are thought to be the most dangerous drugs in the world can be regularly consumed by an addict who can live a relatively stable existence. Heroin, safely prescribed by doctors, is benign, and there is no proof anywhere to the contrary. As with most drugs, it is when its production and distribution are handed over to criminals, as we have done here in Ireland, that it becomes dangerous. When heroin is pushed onto the black market, it gets cut with paracetamol, drain cleaner, sand, sugar, starch, powdered milk, talcum powder, coffee, brick dust, cement dust, gravy powder, face powder, curry powder, crushed bleach crystals - pretty much anything. When a person takes contaminated heroin, it clogs up veins and destroys them.

When heroin is illegal, street heroin addicts need to raise large sums of money. They can rob or prostitute themselves or, more easily, buy their drugs, take what they need, cut the rest with some talcum powder and sell it to others. They need to convince others to take it to expand their customer base to support their habit. It is the laws around heroin that make it harmful, not the heroin itself, and because we insist on ensuring the criminals stay in control of this substance, those who take it will continue to suffer and die, the criminals will continue to make vast sums of money and we will continue to waste vast sums of public money intercepting a minuscule fraction of what is for sale.

In Switzerland, they saw the stupidity of this situation back in the early 1990s and have been prescribing heroin to citizens for more than 20 years. The right-wing parties there have twice tried to overturn the programme by national referendum, and twice the Swiss have overwhelmingly supported the continued prescription of heroin to heroin addicts. They saw that when heroin is illegal, the addict is trapped in a tragic vicious circle of getting money, buying heroin and having to inject, all day, every day. It becomes a job, not just an addiction. Johann Hari, in his powerful new book, Chasing the Scream, talks to those involved in administering the heroin and those receiving it. The doctors stress how the heroin programme is built around helping the patients to rebuild their lives slowly by getting therapy, a home and a job.

Hari spoke to a number of heroin addicts who received treatment at one of the clinics in the city centre of Geneva. One owns a gas station and another works at a bank.

A psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Martin, who works with the heroin programme, clearly explains the work they are doing as follows:

Most addicts here come with an empty glass inside them; when they take heroin, the glass becomes full but only for a few hours and then it drains down to nothing again. The purpose of this program is to gradually build a life for the addict so they can put something else into that glass; a social network, a job, some daily pleasures. If you can do that, it will mean that when the heroin drains, you are not left totally empty. Over time, as your life has more to it, the glass will contain more and more, so it will take less and less heroin to fill it up. And in the end, there may be enough within you that you feel full without any heroin at all.

It goes without saying that the Swiss programme is and has been a huge success that has saved countless lives, while it has undermined and effectively destroyed the power of the drug dealers, who along with the conservatives and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, are the most vitriolic opponents of the programme. The United States has chaos at the heart of its drug war and has behind bars a higher proportion of its population than any other country in the world.

In Switzerland, the gangs have no power over the addicted because the state is caring for them. The average patient uses the programme for three years, after which 85% of participants have stopped using every day. Crimes committed by those on heroin have plummeted, with 55% fewer car thefts and 80% fewer muggings and burglaries. This drop happened almost immediately after the programme started. HIV infections from heroin use have almost entirely disappeared. Why do we continue to pursue a drug policy that wastes money, kills people, destroys lives, empowers criminals and ruins neighbourhoods?

This Bill is designed to criminalise the sale and possession of certain prevalent prescription medicines. It could be pointed out that we have a problem with prescription medicines at a time when I am advocating prescribing heroin. However, a finer point needs to be appreciated. These prescription drugs are cheaper than heroin, easier to get and are just as dangerous as heroin, which is regulated by criminals. They provide a similar amount of oblivion and pain relief from a society that excels at social exclusion and inequality. Criminalising those with addiction is placing further punishment on those who are already victims of the regressive laws surrounding prohibition. They are often the victims of governments that for years now have pursued a neo-liberal agenda that promotes inequality.

As Senator Lynn Ruane has pointed out, this type of legislation will simply move people on to new drugs and when they are outlawed they will move on to other new drugs and so on. That is exactly what happened in Canada. We know that heroin is safe when prescribed and supervised by a doctor and we know that prescribing it to those who are addicted will lead to a betterment of the addicts lives, take away finance and power from the dealers, make communities safer, save the State money, and free Garda resources to pursue real crimes. They might even have the resources to properly investigate what is going on in NAMA. Why are we not even considering this as a real possibility instead of passing a Bill that will waste Garda time, make criminals rich and ruin more lives?

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