Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion and the good work of Deputy Ó Ríordáin on this matter. He has a good track record in dealing with the issues surrounding drug reform, which is very welcome. Reading the motion, you do not know whether to cry in despair or keep your head up pushing for reform. It is a damning indictment of successive Governments that what has occurred has been allowed to happen.

It is extremely sombre to consider that 10,000 people have died of drug-related causes over the past 25 years. These were people's brothers, sisters, mams, dads, other family members and friends. Addiction is very complicated and it can be messy. I am sure lots of those people could still be alive today if there had been a different policy. I am sure of that. I had friends who definitely would be alive today if not for the marginalisation and social deprivation they experienced. When people experiencing addiction also experience the depths of despair, it is one way to hell. That is what individuals, families and communities have suffered. As I said, some of those who succumbed to addiction could still be alive today if there had been a different policy in place. I am 100% certain of that. If we look at different jurisdictions around the world, particularly Portugal, people are being saved. If we can save one life, it is worth changing the law. It is worth fighting for that.

The Government has paid a lot of lip service to having a health-led approach. That terminology is welcome but the question is whether it counters situations in which people find themselves, whereby they are criminalised, brought through the criminal justice system and marginalised. In fact, it simply does not work. The evidence shows we need a different kind of narrative around this issue. The availability of drugs since the 1970s has increased incrementally, not only in Ireland but across the world. The market for drugs is worth hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Our current laws, which originated 42 years ago, are not a deterrent against people taking or supplying drugs. More than 80% of the people in our prisons at this time are there for drug-related crime. They take in the whole pyramid of activity, from the very top to the very bottom. This tells us the current laws do not work.

We need to do something different. We can talk about a health-led approach, harm reduction and all of that, but there needs to be a change. Attitudes in this country have changed dramatically. We need only look at what has happened in the past ten to 15 years in regard to women's right to choose and same-sex marriage. There have been social advancements in Ireland but, sometimes, this House has not moved on. People's attitudes to drug reform have changed. They do not see criminalising people for personal drug use as legitimate. There must be a different approach. This House is way behind public opinion on the issue. The days of prohibition and the Misuse of Drugs Act, which, as I said, is 42 years old, are coming to an end. We must do something very different and that starts with changing the laws around drug use.

I do not know whether the Minister of State will still be in office in six weeks' time. We might have a new Minister of State. Policy in this area emanates from political choice. Why have successive Governments allowed what has happened to continue? Those Governments have largely been made up of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. The question I always ask when considering the issues dealt with in the motion is why this has been allowed to happen. There are vested interests and so forth but, at the end of the day, there is no political will or courage to change what is happening. This is largely affecting working-class communities. The vast majority of people who have died are from certain postcodes in Dublin and certain areas elsewhere in the country. They are largely working-class people. If this was happening to people in a different postcode in Dublin, there would be a completely different response. If we do not have political will on this issue, people do not have a voice.

Those who have succumbed to all this horribleness around addiction have been let down by successive Governments and a lack of political will. That can be changed and the change can be achieved in this House. We need political will from the Government to say that this can no longer continue and something very different must be done. We need to look at other countries that are changing their models around drug reform. After decades of doing things that do not work, they have recognised there must be a changed approach. Countries in Europe are changing their policies, as are the US, Canada, countries in Asia and even countries in South America, which have been terribly affected by drug wars. They have realised the status quodoes not work. As long as that status quocontinues, people will be criminalised and people will die. Why allow that to happen? There is a tiny percentage of people who have enriched themselves through massive profits from the drug trade. What comes with that is the grotesque violence to which communities are subjected.

We must do something. The days of the Misuse of Drugs Act are coming to an end. It may take another couple of years to make a real change but we must look upon the past four or five decades as an absolute failure. If we act now, future generations will say that at least the current generation did something about the madness that happened in the previous four decades.

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