Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As a result of the pandemic, the landscape of drug consumption in Ireland has utterly changed. Before Christmas the Tallaght Drug & Alcohol Task Force issued a report on the increased use of crack cocaine. In my constituency, the North Inner City Drugs & Alcohol Task Force is experiencing a precarious funding situation. We need coherent funding strategies and an approach that is embedded in the community.

The current policies do not address the impacts of drug consumption on families, on health and on social interaction, on children and what happens when people are criminalised, which is what we are doing right now. I am glad to see other citizens’ assemblies but we desperately and urgently need to reframe our national policy position on drugs. We need a national conversation that places the very vulnerable people in our communities that experience this issue at the heart of it. I urge that we put a timeline in place and take urgent action on this issue.

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