Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Bill brought forward by Deputy Gino Kenny. It is extremely timely considering the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use launched its report and recommendations last week. It was a positive step that the Government established the assembly. I welcome that an Oireachtas select committee will be set up to look at its recommendations. I have expressed my interest in sitting on the committee. I look forward to its work commencing and, I hope, being completed before the Dáil term comes to an end. That must be the objective.

I support the Bill and am happy the Government is not opposing it outright, albeit it is being given a pregnancy stay. Criminalising the drug user has not worked. I have said that many times and I say it again. It is an approach that is not grounded in evidence or in any respect for human dignity. It results in an overreliance on punitive measures, which is something for which we do not have capacity. For example, there are 4,768 people in custody today, with 101 of them sleeping on mattresses on the floor. That is shocking. We are draining the resources that could and should be invested in evidence-based services. Let us just absorb that fact. We continue to incarcerate people for simple possession. When I met the then governor of Mountjoy Prison, he told me that the reality, unfortunately, is that those who are incarcerated end up in a school of criminality. Does that make any sense at all?

It is a fact that current policy does not deter drug use effectively. What has been done and what is still being done is not working. As policymakers, we ultimately want people who are dug users to seek help. Criminalisation only adds to the stigma around drug users and should no longer be an option. Decriminalisation would encourage service development and uptake and go a long way to changing societal attitudes towards people with addictions. That is the space into which we need to move. We need recognition from the Government that communities that are marginalised and stuck in deprivation have had inequitable enforcement of drug laws and concentrated use of police powers. Decriminalising can present an opportunity to address the mistrust between those communities and An Garda Síochána.

I do not have time to discuss the review of the recently completed medical cannabis access programme, MCAP. It is hugely disappointing that we have such restricted access to medicinal cannabis considering that the provision has been in place since 2019. Progress has been far too slow. That leaves vulnerable people open to criminalisation and a life of stigma and intimidation from drug gangs. It leaves them isolated, with the feeling there is no help and no hope. I absolutely support the Bill.

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