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

It is fair to say that we have at least agreement on one issue, which is that the war on drugs has been an abject failure. I recall that there was a period in Dundalk a couple of years ago when, following cuts to Garda funding, we did not have a drug squad and then the drug squad was suddenly in operation again. In fairness, no one is going to have a problem when action is taken against dangerous criminals that have our communities in serious bother and under serious pressure. They have their foot on their neck. I remember a former superintendent saying how brilliant it would be if he had 50 or 100 guards working specifically on drugs. Then he turned around and asked if we could show him a place where policing has actually worked and we have been able to out-police this. That is the logic of where we are at.

It is a failure that we are not allowing this legislation to go forward and that we do not have a real conversation. We can talk about a health-led strategy and a harm-reduction strategy but we need to enact it at some point in time. That is not to take away from the fact that there are issues with cannabis and the increased levels of THC. We have seen the issues in regard to psychosis and we have also seen that the State and services do not allow for dual diagnosis for mental health services so people are kept on the outside. We have no means of dealing with people when they are in disastrous circumstances. We are also dealing with the reality of the fact that all these drugs are being dealt – cannabis, cocaine, and whatever else. We have to look at all of it. We know that the people who suffer the most are those in working-class areas. We know there is a significant overlap with poverty that needs to be addressed. We also know that a huge amount of the money that goes to drug gangs actually comes from middle-class people who take cocaine. We need different solutions across the board in regard to all of this and to the funding of addiction services. The Minister met with the Family Addiction Support Network in Dundalk, which is supported by the Garda but is facing closure. Turas needed to self-fund its own dual-diagnosis project. The Red Door Project in Drogheda has also been under significant pressure. We need to get real. In fairness to Deputy Gino Kenny, when he spoke about the 4 l of vodka, not only would that kill you, but it is legal to take it down the street at the moment. We all know that nobody should take drugs and a lot of us would probably be better off if we did not take alcohol.

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