Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Measaim nach leor an Bille ríthábhachtach seo. Ba chóir dúinn a lán eile a dhéanamh i bhfad níos tapúla ná mar atá déanta againn go dtí seo. Ní dhéanfaidh an reachtaíocht seo puinn difríochta don fhadhb mór millteanach atá againn inár sochaí faoi láthair. Ní mór dúinn díriú isteach ar bhealach eile.

I have been involved for many decades at this stage in the anti-drugs movements in this city. Nobody can accuse me of being soft on drugs and on drug dealers in particular. Over the years, some might say that I have matured, but that is not it. I came to the realisation that many of those who take and are addicted to drugs are young people who have many other issues. Whereas communities might have taken a simplistic approach to drug dealers in the early 1980s, they soon became aware that those dealers were of their communities in many cases and were often their own sons and daughters. That is a difficult realisation for any parent. How does one address it? How does one address a young man or a young girl who is selling poison to feed his or her own habit?

For years, we were promised that the Criminal Assets Bureau was going to address the big drug dealers, or barons as they were presented to us in this city in particular and throughout the country. I remember the debate on the original CAB legislation, which represented a major change to the legal system in moving the onus away from the legal system onto the person who had accumulated wealth. There were suspicions as to whether it would work and whether it was a step too far. In the communities I represent and have lived in since, there has been major concern about what happens to the confiscated money and assets. At the very least, the demand originally was that the assets seized would be applied to help young people addicted to drugs through the provision of services to prevent them from ending up in addiction, whether physical or mental, to drugs. CAB was supposed at all times to be doing wonderful things. It managed to confiscate quite a lot. However, it is 20 or 25 years since CAB was established and it is strange to see that there are more drug barons than ever now and more wealth concentrated among those who deal in illegal drugs.

This is not just aimed at Government. As a society, we need to figure out how best to tackle the scourge of drugs. It is not just heroin and cocaine but ecstasy and prescription drugs, which is something the Bill before us addresses. Prescription drugs are ending up on the street. A few years ago, my father-in-law died and I took to the pharmacy two full shopping bags of prescription drugs which he had never taken. Every time he went to get one part of his prescription filled, the whole plethora of drugs he was supposed to be on were handed to him. That is true of many people. We have a major problem in terms of prescription drugs as well as with the illegal ones. That has not been addressed.

It is not something new and which is only just emerging. I remember in the early 1990s that this was one of the concerns of the same communities which were also talking about heroin. They were talking about the large number of people who were addicted to prescription drugs. Some doctors were prescribing willy-nilly. People were prescribed whatever they wanted. I acknowledge that there were moves by the Irish Medical Council to address that, but it is obvious that not enough was done if we are now introducing a Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill to make illegal the possession of certain prescription drugs which are not for personal use.

These should not be getting to people in the first place. Obviously, the Internet has emerged in the meantime. I am not blind to that or to the significant challenge it poses to our Customs and Excise. I have argued that Customs and Excise needs to be resourced more to tackle not just this aspect of illegal drugs but quite a lot of other contraband that comes through. If that means more X-ray machines to scan trucks and cars in every port in the country, it would be money well spent.

Earlier this week, I presented a report to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly specifically on visa systems. One of its recommendations was that smaller ports would be properly resourced. We met An Garda Síochána and immigration officials last week in Rosslare, while Baroness Harris, from the British side, met the equivalent officials in Fishguard. The authorities were happy with the co-operation that takes place, but there was concern about the lack of resources. I know we can scan every single car and truck and every item of post that comes into the country but it still would not address the problem. However, it would show that we are taking this issue seriously.

The scale of the problem with the drugs we are trying to ban with this legislation is significant among young people in Dublin and major urban centres. It is now spreading to rural areas. Banning them is not enough, however. It does not deal with the issue of residual chemicals left in young people's bodies, the psychological effect that some of these drugs will have on young people for years to come, or the chaos these drugs cause in accident and emergency departments week in and week out. I have seen it myself - doctors trying to deal with the effects of these drugs without knowing what they are, how to cope with them or how to counteract them. That in itself is a drain on our health service. If we invest properly in resources in schools, diverting young people away from illegal drugs in the first instance, or any legal drug such as alcohol, tobacco or prescription drugs, at least our health service may save some money. Whatever money is saved could be invested in the capture of more of the products poisoning our young people.

I remember dealing with Mary Harney as Minister for Health when head shops abounded across the country. It was recognised, however, that whatever legislation was introduced, we would still be playing catch-up the whole time. This legislation might be passed in the morning. However, there are drugs emerging that are not captured by the Bill’s provisions and will bypass them. Often, we are reflecting developments in Europe and Britain and playing catch-up. Sometimes we are head of the rest of them. The legislation dealing with head shops was examined by many other countries dealing with that problem. It took several years before the British system caught up with our provisions for dealing with head shops. While we can be ahead of the curve in this regard, at the end of the day we are not ahead of the money being put by drug barons into creating new drugs and some unscrupulous industries that discover these substances as by-products which they then sell on. In the past, pseudoephedrine was removed from many prescription medicines because it could be used in the manufacture of other drugs. Do we now start banning all sorts of chemicals that can be mixed to make other drugs? Do we have to introduce legislation when we identify five or six products that need to be proscribed? Is there another way in which all chemical components could be licensed before they can be used? I am not an expert in this. However, rather than just passing this legislation, we should look at how we could prevent - it might have to be on a European or world level - the emergence of new chemical products that affect young people with horrible consequences for them, their families and society around them.

I am not arguing for the legalisation of drugs. I am arguing, however, that a penal regime is not the best policy for dealing with young people caught with drugs. There should be consequences, but should they prevent people from moving on to a career, enjoying holidays abroad or having a family? Often, young people do not take the consequences into account when they are enjoying themselves. It is not often on purpose that young people take various products that end up causing an addiction.

Some companies in Ireland produce the prescription medicines which are listed in this Bill. They should be asked if they can take greater steps to ensure their products do not filter out onto the open market for sale. There are certain areas in Dublin city where it does not matter what type of drug one wants, as it can be obtained. It is a sad day when we see open drug dealing on our streets, which for a long time had disappeared into the background. In some parts of Dublin, it is like going into a supermarket for drugs. Whatever one wants, one will find. That is not the way it should be. During the head shop era, there were queues of young people outside them. It seems to be cropping up again and needs to be tackled by An Garda Síochána and Dublin City Council. We also need to ensure resources are given to hospitals, to schools and to those investigating emerging trends in drugs. We need to catch the trend before it arrives here and take whatever steps are required to prevent a drug from gaining any type of a foothold. If we know there is a drug starting to emerge in Europe or in the world, then we should take action before it emerges as a drug of choice among young people here and prevent it from even getting onto the streets in the first place.

I hope this Bill is not the only response to this problem. I know the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality is examining the option of a mini Criminal Assets Bureau. There is no need to change the legislation to deal with that. The legislation that created the Criminal Assets Bureau in the first place gave it enough power to go after those flaunting the wealth they got from drugs, which in turn attracted more young people to a life of crime and drug dealing. I welcome the Bill, but it is not the answer at this stage.

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