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

Organised crime is an insidious reality and those who participate in that insidious reality are some of the most unscrupulous people who will use particularly grotesque violence and intimidation to achieve their ends. They are highly organised, motivated and adaptable because of the vast profits of the black or alternative economy. When inequality and poverty are factors, some people will go down the route of the alternative economy. That is no excuse. Many people who come from working-class areas never go down the road of organised crime but a small number of people from these and other communities participate in this activity.

One of the main drivers of organised crime is the supply and distribution of drugs. It is the key driver of organised crime. When controlled drugs in the State are controlled by organised crime we have a problem. The controlled drugs that people use are controlled by the black market, which is highly profitable and insidious in areas of our life. The proliferation of all drugs in the past five decades has exponentially increased, as has our prison population. What does that say about the laws of the land? We have to go back to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, which reflected what had happened in Britain a few years previously, to see when a deterrent to the supply or use drugs was introduced. Anyone in this Chamber who tells me this legislation had the desired effect is fooling themselves. It has not and, in fact, it has vastly enriched a tiny number of people in our society.

There is a narrative, one that I would argue, that we need to look at something very different from what we have at the moment. The alternative is to take back control. We must stop criminalising people for using drugs. People use drugs for all kinds of reasons. As I said, the black market largely controls drugs. It is highly profitable and we need to take back control. That control has many strands to it. We are having a debate about decriminalisation in the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use. That is a good and important debate. I hope the Citizens' Assembly will make recommendations to look at approaches different from the status quobecause thestatus quodoes not work. If it worked, people would not be using drugs.

The vast majority of people in Irish prisons are there for drug-related crimes. This approach does not work. We need to do something different. I do not think most people will agree with me when I say, and I do so genuinely, that we have to do something radically different from the paradigm of prohibition. It is about decriminalising the person. People will use drugs, regardless of whether they are legal. We have to stop criminalising people who want to use drugs. It is also a factor that people will use and enjoy drugs. Drugs have been around for millennia. People will want to alter their minds. If they want to do that, why criminalise them? Why bring them through the criminal justice system? That approach simply has not worked. We must look at radical alternatives as regards regulation and legalisation of certain drugs. There is even a debate to be had about the regulation of all drugs. It is quite a nuanced debate.

There are many reasons people turn to drugs. Many people will use drugs but never abuse them. Moralising about people using drugs, which I am surprised the Minister did, does not sit well. Saying they are part of a criminal circle or that by using drugs they are somehow endorsing the black market and criminality does not wash. People do not think about that when they are using drugs.

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