Results 1-20 of 89 for drugs segment:8135059

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: Thank you, Chairman, for your invitation to appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health to discuss the implementation of the national drugs strategy 2021-25. As you said, I am joined by two officials: the principal officer in the drugs policy and social inclusion unit of the Department of Health, Mr. Jim Walsh, and the HSE national clinical lead for addiction, Dr. Eamon Keenan. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: With all due respect, the past 45 minutes, in particular, of this meeting have been among the most excruciating I have ever had to listen to when speaking about drug use in Ireland. I cannot believe I am hearing it in 2022. A lot more that was wrong has been said in the past 45 minutes than the naming of a building in the city centre, but nobody picked up on that and intervened, such as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Gino Kenny: I do not wish to focus on one particular drug, namely, cannabis. There are far worse drugs in society than cannabis. There are drugs that will kill people and obliterate communities. That is factual. Some of the responses are kind of hysterical in terms of how people make observations regarding cannabis use in particular. Broadly speaking, the ongoing battle against drug crime and drug...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Bernard Durkan: ...and that is quite true. I find one thing difficult to understand. We have read, for instance, in reports from Tallaght and so on about young mothers being forced into prostitution to pay for drugs. Whether that is crack cocaine or a beginner drug like cannabis is immaterial. The fact of the matter is that the people who gain most from all this are the drug barons. The late Tony...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Bernard Durkan: Before that, I will give an idea of where I am coming from. There is nothing as soul-destroying as when one is dealing with families where there is a drug problem that grows and grows and eventually tears the family apart. The Minister of State spoke of stigma. The stigma is as a result of continued reliance on particular drugs. We need to address that. The whole concept of methadone is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Bernard Durkan: I thank the Minister and his colleagues for coming before the committee. I am finding the conversation interesting. I was a member, in a previous incarnation, of a ministerial drugs task force and liaised with the community-based committees. I should say at the outset that I listened to the conversation there on the need for the legalisation of cannabis and I do not accept it at all....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: I am following the national drugs strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery. There is discussion regarding a citizens' assembly on drug use, in effect. At present, we are following the Reducing Harm, Supporting Recover booklet in the Department until there is a change of direction. I am not sure there will be because legalising drugs would inevitably normalise drug use. That is just my...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: It is not about stigmatisation. I am going to have to outline the basics. The war on drugs is an American system that came through the UN treaty. If the Minister of State goes back right to the 1970s, to his party, Fine Gael, and to the Fianna Fáil Party, he will see the conversation on what the war on drugs means and where the drugs legislation came from. It originates from the UN...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: I thank the Deputy. The national drugs strategy - Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery - is the way forward. We established a working group in December 2017 to consider alternative approaches. It examined the option of decriminalising drugs and did not deem it an appropriate option in the Irish context due to legal difficulties and the fact that the group was very concerned it could lead to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: As a politician that stands over policy, does the Minister of State understand that the war on drugs is about the criminalisation of people who use drugs? Does he believe drug users are criminals?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: It is not about normalising drugs; it is about people and what they do in their lives, their agency, their supports and their networks. It is about not excluding them from society because of their choice to take drugs. It is about fixing the poverty and inequality in communities where we have chaotic drug use. The Minister of State's statement was very strong, so much so that I texted him...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: ...visit a treatment centre and ask people if they support legalisation. What I do is I ask my friends if they think they are criminals. If I ask the father of my child if he is a criminal for his drug use, he will say "No". I do not ask people if they think drugs should be legalised. We have to be careful about the questions we ask. People who have grown up in poverty and addiction have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

John Lahart: ...to grandstand the Minister of State, but I do want to send a very strong message to him from the point of view of the preparation of next year's budget. In ten years, the funding to Tallaght drug and alcohol task force from the Department of Health and the HSE decreased. I welcome the recent allocation, but it is only a start. That is the message I have to get across to the Minister of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: Crack cocaine use is a huge issue. The drug has become more prevalent in Ireland, with 2.3% of the population reportedly using the drug. The national drug reporting system shows an increase of more than 400% in crack cocaine use between 2014 and 2020. There has been a huge problem with cocaine use in Ireland and the emergence of crack cocaine use in certain marginalised areas. I have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: The report, entitled The Landscape of Substance Misuse and its Impact on the Communities of Tallaght Drug and Alcohol Task Force, highlighted that issue. The Chairman spoke about emerging trends. We have, in one aspect, tried to deal with emerging trends through the funding of €850,000 over three years and the €240,000 going to the relevant community healthcare organisation,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: I am glad the Deputy has welcomed the €850,000 initiative. The Tallaght drug and alcohol task force put forward a very powerful argument for that funding. That task force highlighted the problem through its very informative report. Tallaght is an area that has intergenerational issues, with some families and children caught up in a cycle of drug use, addiction, trauma and harm. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: The best way forward to me is the national drugs strategy. We received more than 20,000 submissions in 2017 and we have had a midterm review. It is a health-led approach. I grew up in the 1980s. There was not a drug problem as such. We had a drug problem but it was alcohol and tobacco. We did not deal with alcohol very well. The way we deal with these things is by destigmatising...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Frank Feighan: I thank Senator Conway very much. We are very aware of the issues. The Senator articulated very well that the impact of drugs in disadvantaged communities has been hugely significant. I want to pay tribute to the role played by the task forces in responding. I assure the Senator that the Government is committed to a joined up departmental approach to addressing substance misuse. Task...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Cathal Crowe: ...think the current funding model really grasps all of that. In my remaining time, I want to make one more point. I grew up in rural County Clare and in my lifetime I had only seen a handful of drug deals taking place, with drugs passing hand to hand. Since being elected to Dáil Éireann, I get the train to Heuston Station and cycle along the quays on a Dublin Bike every day....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Gino Kenny: I thank the Minister of State and the other witnesses for attending. I want to cut to the chase. The elephant in the room is whether the current drugs policy in Ireland is working. I would say it is not and will continue not to work in relation to the prevalence of drugs in our society. Obviously, drug prevalence has huge effects on the community. We have seen that the criminal justice...