Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am puzzled by the framework this legislation is being presented in. The Bill is coming from the Department of Health, and one would have assumed that therefore the discussion would be framed as a health issue, yet the aim behind it, allegedly, is to help the Garda in dealing with gangland crime and the recent terrible scenes in our city. The Minister of State emphasised several times that these measures are being sought by the Garda, but I note the absence from the briefing of those who deal with the health effects of the misuse of drugs. We are told that the Garda regards this Bill criminalising drug users as an important weapon in their fight but we are not told how. It is already illegal to sell prescription drugs, and I note that this year several benzos were moved from Schedule 4 to Schedule 1 under the Misuse of Drugs Act. As heroin is still in Schedule 2, are we to deduce that heroin is now less damaging to health than benzos or Z-drugs, and that if people are going to take drugs they are better off taking heroin than Valium or zopiclone? I fear that making it illegal to possess these drugs will actually give rise to an increase in the use of other drugs such as heroin. In the United States a recent ban on OxyContin fuelled a major epidemic in heroin use because drug users found heroin cheaper, easier and more accessible than the prescription opiates. It will not do anything to stop the gangland killing and it certainly will not do anything to hurt the drug barons’ pockets. It will only harm those in need of health supports, who need detox beds and not the sort of response we are providing for here.

I want to take the unusual step of reading a speech that was made in the Seanad by Senator Lynn Ruane. I know Lynn going right back and the Minister of State probably knew her too when she worked in the drugs projects in Bluebell. She has huge experience of dealing with the victims of drugs. She said in the Seanad:

The relentless warfare on drugs has failed. It failed long ago. It fails every time an addict dies from the effects of an unknown substance. It fails every time a parent has to pay the drug debt of a child. It fails every time we imprison an addict for possession and it fails every time we introduce legislation to further criminalise the addict. The addict has become collateral damage in the State's fight to dismantle the drugs trade. Legislation that criminalises possession reinforces the stigma associated with addiction. . . . I have had dozens of conversations in recent weeks with people who both sell and use substances. I refer to two of the contributions which I raise in order to communicate the reality of the amendments and the people they affect. A 34 year old woman from Tallaght said:Even after I was raped, imprisoned, battered, pimped and hospitalised I have been refused treatments for benzo addiction. Apparently I am not ready, or so some stranger likes to decide. I sell benzos, not a huge amount, just enough to fund my own use and to do some food shopping. I often have boxes of benzos in my possession.A young 17 year old male from Crumlin said: My brother and I started taking tablets after weekend sessions. We used to rob my Mam's zimos when we were children and I deliver benzos for my cousin so I can get some for myself.

He would like to join the Army some day but he cannot get off drugs. Both of these use this type of drug. That young boy will never make it to the Army and the woman from Tallaght risks being imprisoned again and again if treatment for her benzo addiction does not become the priority. Currently, she is being treated like a criminal.

This Bill aims to criminalise small-time drug users and will do nothing to halt the use of drugs or to help those who are already addicted. Study after study, report after report and past experience teach us that if we are serious about this issue we need to study the root causes of addiction and have proper treatment for those already afflicted. We need to remind ourselves of the discussions in the north inner city with the community activists and the full-time community workers around the time of the killings there, when they described the alienation and disaffection of young people who had no hope for the future, who felt discarded by society and felt they would never attain dignity, and did not have proper jobs. I want to throw into the discourse the massive cuts to drugs, community and youth projects and family intervention in communities such as these. They have been outrageous. The Minister of State once described this as picking the low-hanging fruit. That is exactly what the last Government went after when it recouped the debt for the European bank bailout. Instead of looking after communities and treating drug misuse as a health issue, this Bill sets out in the opposite direction. While it is under the remit of the Department of Health, the arguments relied on by the Minister of State are not based on health or scientific studies but instead on requests from the Garda and requests and arguments that rely on security rather than drug addiction in the first instance as a health and social issue.

The international experience from Portugal to South America shows that we need to move in the opposite direction - from a crime-oriented approach to a health-oriented approach. This Bill is failing utterly to deal with drug misuse as a health issue. The criminalisation of more prescription drugs has no basis in health care. The focus should be on encouraging engagement with services, if they are there. At the moment they are totally inadequate. We do not have enough detox beds and I have just mentioned the massive cuts to family intervention projects, community drug projects and so on. Many of those who use benzos on the street cannot access benzo addiction treatment. This will do nothing to help matters. All it will do is push people into using other harmful drugs such as heroin, and that will push the dealers into upping the price of heroin and selling more of it on the streets.

A government that will not ban advertising for alcohol at sports events such as the Heineken Cup cannot claim to be tough on drugs. All the statistics from the Department of Health show us that alcohol abuse or misuse is much more taxing to health services and results in much more long-term bed occupancy and many more deaths than drug misuse. It also accounts for much more social and family-related problems such as domestic violence. Once again the introduction of injection rooms has been put a year down the road. The previous Minister of State with responsibility for the drugs strategy attempted to bring this in. We need it urgently.

I do not know if it would be the Minister of State’s genre, but "The Wire" was an excellent projection of the gangland and drug addiction scene in Baltimore in America. It showed very clearly that every attempt to criminalise drugs further gives the prosecution service, the Ministers involved and particularly the police service better statistics in the form of arrests and prosecutions. It will give the Minister of State better arguments to make on a TV debate or if she goes to the polls again, to say the Government is doing wonderful things about drugs because the statistics show more people are being arrested and being put in prison. That is exactly what will happen: more resources will be taken up in choking our courts with petty small-time dealers and choking the Prison Service with people who should be in treatment rather than being locked up. It will not stop gangland killings. The gangs will just change their product from one thing to another and intensify their sales. It will not stop the tragedies that visit countless families. We are opposed to this Bill. It will do nothing but harm the cause of improving outcomes for our communities, for drug users and their families. It will reinforce the cycle of criminality and push users into the laps of the very gangs that this Bill allegedly attempts to undermine.

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