Seanad debates

Wednesday, 12 November 2003

Courts and Court Officers (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second and Subsequent Stages. - National Drugs Strategy: Motion.

 

A similar programme should be introduced here. The reason this will not happen is that if the Minister were to make such an announcement tomorrow morning, people would say the Government had gone mad and was feeding junkies. Leadership requires that we take bold steps. Handing out heroin is no different from handing out methadone. The difference, however, would be that it would snooker the suppliers, the drugs trade and the criminals and allow the State to consider innovative, novel approaches to resolving the problem which would reduce crime, bring the drug addicts under the influence of medical professionals and allow people to make choices and move on. This has happened elsewhere and could happen here. I am sure the Minister of State has read as much about these experiments as I have.

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