Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

A number of speakers outlined worthwhile ways of moving this issue forward. I will not repeat those but instead focus on a number of areas that have not been touched on this evening.

The legalisation of drugs is not a policy we should develop or implement at any point. I feel strongly about that issue because it goes back to my idea of what politics is all about. Politics is about freedom and helping people be free from negative forces, whether it be hunger, deprivation or coercion. It is also about giving people the freedom to do something with their life through education, the provision of safe neighbourhoods and ensuring they have a decent health service. Drugs are anti-freedom. They give people an illusion in terms of who they are. They reduce their ability to make use of the capabilities and gifts they have and that society tries to nurture and anything that does that is not something we should sustain or recognise.

I understand the informed points made by people who propose the legalisation of drugs. They talk about the difficulty of winning this war by reducing the supply of drugs and dealing with the issue of demand but just because the battle is ferociously difficult does not mean we should give up trying to win it. Our State should not recognise anything that reduces the ability of any citizen to take advantage of the gifts God, nature and society has given to them.

The Minister of State referred earlier to his Department's response regarding the inclusion of alcohol in the national substance misuse strategy. He said he had an open mind in that regard. Alcohol should be included in that strategy because there is no doubt that the excessive use of alcohol leads to the difficulties to which I referred. It reduces people's ability to be who they can and should be and if the inclusion of alcohol in the strategy creates challenges for the drinks industry, people who supply drink and so on, as I have no doubt it will, that is a price we must pay. The points made about the link between alcohol, the presentation of people in accident and emergency departments and suicide demand that alcohol be included in the strategy and people who have a legitimate interest in the supply and sale of alcohol will have to deal with that.

On the question of responsibility, that is something I have struggled with during this debate and in recent weeks. Like most people my age, I have been very lucky. I benefited from a good education, growing up in a safe home and the ability to get a job and take advantage of the gifts I was given. With all the life chances and choices that were available to me, if I then decided to use a drug I knew could end my life or severely restrict my ability to act responsibly in the future, at what point would our responsibility as a Legislature and the Minister of State's responsibility on behalf of the Government end? At what point do we say we have done all we can as a Legislature to deal with this issue and when should personal responsibility for one's actions kick in?

I am not saying we should wash our hands of people; nobody is suggesting that. I raise it to bring into sharp focus the people who did not have the chances available to me. I speak about those who have grown up with deprivation and disadvantage and who did not have the role models and the positive experiences I had and for whom drug use is part of their daily life. For those people the supply and use of drugs in their community is far more prevalent than should be the case. It is the whole point of social and educational disadvantage.

An element missing in the debate is that regarding the use of cocaine by people with more money than sense. For many people who do not have money and because of the environment in which they have grown up, drug use is more the norm than we should accept. Schools in disadvantaged areas should be given additional resources and programmes to tackle this. These will have to be accelerated and used in future to ensure in 15 years' time we are not having the same debate. Families and partners about to bring children into the world must be proficient at educating their young on drugs to ensure the mistakes of this generation are not repeated.