Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I said in the House yesterday, we can all accept that the war on drugs has been lost. We are going to need a citizens' assembly on drugs as soon as possible. We obviously need a more novel approach because what we are doing at the minute is not working. That is not to say we do not need criminal sanction and resources to deal with dangerous criminals. Drug debt intimidation is one of the serious issues that comes across my desk too often. I have spoken to the Minister and the Minister of State previously about funding for organisations that are doing great work, particularly with addicts and with families, for example, the Family Addiction Support Network, Turas, and the Red Door Project. We must ensure funding is provided to them but we must also deal with these dangerous criminals that have communities under the cosh. We must deal with them from a criminal justice point of view but beyond that, we also need to support our communities. We need family and community supports at an earlier stage.

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