Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Even in boom times, successive Governments have not had enough resources to ensure we can tackle the blight that is drug abuse.

My home town of Limerick city, for instance, has no local drugs task force. We have no detoxification centre, yet we clearly have a worsening drugs problem. Limerick, like the rest of the country, needs detox spaces, properly resourced drug treatment services and an end to policies that reproduce deprivation and socioeconomic exclusion in communities. This legislation will do nothing to address this fundamental issue or to stem the increase in drug use. In Limerick, drugs are still a huge factor in the city's informal economy, and criminal elements continue to make huge profits while destroying communities and trading in misery.

It is high time to expand the Criminal Assets Bureau and for the Government to amend the Proceeds of Crime Act to ensure that money seized by the bureau goes back into the communities affected by drugs. If the Government had the political will to fund organisations throughout the State, it could divert funds to local drugs task force projects. The mid-west regional drug and alcohol forum, of which I am a member, has taken cuts of more than 50% since 2008. These cuts have impacted severely on the delivery of vital services which are urgently needed across the region and especially in Limerick city. This Bill will do nothing to assist drug-ravaged communities. If the Minister of State had a bit of imagination, she could redirect money seized from criminals to fund directly organisations delivering vital services in the field. That would be an important step in the battle against drug crime.

We can bury our heads in the sand and pretend in the face of research proving otherwise that criminalising already disadvantaged people will help to solve this very human problem, but it will not. Children in their very early teens and even younger are becoming addicted to antidepressants like Xanax and other prescription drugs. I know first-hand the effect that abuse of Xanax and other prescription tablets has on young people and I can only describe it as the worst type of addiction to get off. Drug and alcohol councillors have noted that it can take anything up to three years for some of these teenagers to come off this type of addiction properly. They are buying prescription-type drugs online which are not from the most credible sources. In particular, Xanax is a drug used to treat depression but they are mixing it with drink to get high and it is certainly not meant for that.

One of my constituents is a young man by the name of Conor. He is 24 years of age and a former addict from Limerick city. He described the use of prescription drugs by young people as an epidemic that has broken out in recent years. The extent of the problem is evident from the large number of empty Xanax tablet packets that can be seen discarded on streets and in housing estates across the city. Conor went on to say that children as young as ten, 11 and 12 years of age are taking packets and packets of Xanax and that primary school children are taking them regularly. The problem is that these tablets are often sourced online and, because of this, there are credibility issues around their ingredients. Most of them are not manufactured properly and God only knows what is in them. Youngsters are sourcing tablets for a quick and easy hit. Conor was addicted to these tablets. He is on daily medication because of the seizures he has been left with as a result of drug abuse. Conor told me, "I just don't want children growing up and getting into the same situation as I did and I am only 24 years of age."

Conor hopes there will be a greater awareness in 2016 of the need to try and combat the use of what he describes as the new heroin in the city. The Bill, however, shows no signs of awareness or progressive thinking on the part of the Government on this issue. Criminalising young people who, more often than not, are already disadvantaged is a lazy and bankrupt response to what is an exceptionally serious issue. It is a very middle class response to what is perceived to be an issue which concerns only working class communities. The legislation will not work as it offers nothing to address the root causes of this problem, which are disadvantage, marginalisation and the political indifference of the middle classes.

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