Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, for coming to the House to debate this Bill and for her time in the lead-up to its preparation. I also thank the officials in the Departments of Justice and Equality and Health for their advice and input. I welcome that the Committee on Justice and Equality is willing to scrutinise the Bill in the autumn.

I am proud to introduce this legislation at a time when there are many people in the Visitors Gallery from the area to which I have dedicated my life. I thank all the people in the Gallery for their hard work in the drug use and addiction area. I especially thank Senator Ó Ríordáin, who co-sponsored this Bill and has worked closely with me on it. I thank the Civil Engagement group for its support and also the Independents who have co-signed this Bill, which is indicative of the support that exists for it. I acknowledge the presence in the Gallery today of Mr. Liam O'Brien. I have often spoken about how I entered the drugs field at the very early age of 17 years, not long after my own drug use and criminality. Liam O'Brien took a chance on me, invested in me and empowered me to work in this area, something which not everyone who is criminalised for drug use gets the opportunity to do. I thank Liam O'Brien for all his hard work in Killinarden over many years.

Before I address the specific provisions of the legislation, it is important to outline why I have dedicated most of my life to the study and treatment of addiction and, as a result, why I have brought this legislation before the House today. This is about more than my standing in this Chamber and doing my duty as a legislator. It is about me, my family, my friends, my community and the communities throughout this country that engage in drug use and drug abuse. It is about the hundreds of people I have supported, advocated on behalf of and also laid to rest prematurely from drug related deaths. I have been a drug user. I have been developing drug addiction programmes since I was 17 and I continue to support my friends and community daily with the often lifelong lasting impact of drug use and addiction. There is no doubt in my mind that punishing, shaming, stigmatising and criminalising drug use has failed in deterring people from using drugs.

Drug use spans across all of society, but problem drug use is primarily concentrated in areas of deprivation. Where poverty is already difficult to escape, being able to navigate one's way through socioeconomic disadvantage is almost impossible with a conviction for possession. We must, and should, recognise the economic influences that create and reinforce patterns of addiction and criminality and begin to change policy to unravel some of those patterns in order that we no longer punish and prosecute marginalised populations in the name of morality. I view the criminalisation of drugs as a form of criminalisation of poverty given the high numbers of the working class that find themselves in the prison system for drug possession. Currently in Ireland, we spend millions every year on legal aid, probation and prison. This is a cost that does nothing to create change in a person’s life in terms of their drug use. Life after addiction is difficult. Most people have to find new ways to pass the day, new friends and new environments. In that search for a new sense of themselves, finding employment, having the option to travel and not being labelled as criminal is key to their development. Not having access to services, support and employment often results in a person falling back into addiction, as he or she finds it too hard to integrate into normal working society because of a conviction. I have seen this many times in areas such as social work and youth community, whereby a person is denied access to the course because of a conviction he or she had in previous years for possession. Recovery can be a very lonely place. To support a person to remain in recovery education and employment are crucial. We have a history in Ireland of imprisoning people unjustly. People experiencing addiction have a complex set of needs that can never be met and supported in the legal system. For example, in 2013, 679 deaths in Ireland were linked to drug use. The number of non-poisoning deaths recorded among drug users was 292 in 2013. Deaths owing to hanging continue to be the main cause of non-overdose drug related deaths, accounting for 25% of all non-poisoning deaths in 2013. We will never know how many of those deaths could have been avoided if drug use and addiction, rather than being criminalised, was treated as a public health issue.

The crux of the argument is that it is incumbent on us as a society to reduce the harm of people who experience addiction, experiment with drugs or use drugs recreationally. It is up to us a society and as representatives of that society to leave this country better than we found it. Members should ask themselves, if one of their sons or daughters was caught in possession of ecstasy tablets at a musical festival, where they would want him or her to go. When someone experiencing addiction to heroin is caught in possession, where will we send him or her? Should he or she be sent to a criminal system that reinforces trauma, a system that all the evidence shows has done nothing either to deter people from using drugs or to improve their situations. It is the system that removes the opportunity for full recovery and intervention.Some 76% of all drugs convictions are for simple possession. Prison time and convictions do not address the issues of drugs. Imprisonment creates a barrier to education and employment and stigmatises and shames a person who is already suffering and struggling. Prison acts as a gateway to criminality; it does not stop it. All of these factors compound the cycle of addiction, criminality, poverty and disconnection.

We can and should refer people to a purpose-built and humane system that recognises the complexities and many forms that drug use takes. We need a system managed by experts in the fields of health, law and addiction who are able to treat people found in possession of drugs with fairness and compassion. Instead of sending our young people and those experiencing addiction to the courts, they should meet experienced case officers who are able to recommend the best course of action for the person and with the person. Surely a system where we are able to inform people about drugs or support them in accessing rehabilitative treatment or to reconnect with their communities through community engagement initiatives is better than them ending up in Mountjoy Prison. That is what we are debating today.

Drug use will happen and will continue to impact on lives. Nothing that the Oireachtas does will ever result in the elimination of drug consumption. All we, as legislators, can do is control how the State reacts to drug use and how it treats people who use drugs. The question is: when someone we know and love is found in possession of drugs, who do we want to work with them? Is it a garda and a judge or even a prison guard, or is it a health professional and an addiction worker? That is what the Bill boils down to and the question that we should ask is whether we support them or whether we ignore the evidence and continue to punish and propagate criminality.

I will now give a brief overview of the main provisions of the Bill. Section 3 inserts into the original Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 a new section which decriminalises the possession of controlled drugs for personal use provided it does not exceed the quantity allowed for personal use. Section 3(2) allows for the Minister to set by regulation the amount allowed for personal use. Section 3 also maintains the criminalisation of possession of drugs in excess of personal use and specifically states that nothing in the section will impact on cases where a person possesses drugs with intent to sell. It is important to note that the legislation maintains the strict criminalisation placed on drug dealing and selling and simply provides for the decriminalisation of the individual using drugs.

Section 5 allows for An Garda Síochána to refer persons found in possession of drugs to a new drug dissuasion service for assessment. Every person found in possession of drugs, whether it be within the allowed amount or in excess, will be referred to the service. The Bill allows for a referral to a tailor-made and targeted service, rather than to a punitive criminal justice environment.

Sections 10 to 16, inclusive, outline the structure, functions, leadership and accountability of the new drug dissuasion service. The service will be led by a director general who will be directly accountable to the Oireachtas. When drafting this Bill, we looked to other examples of quasi-judicial bodies that already existed within Irish legislation. As a result, many of the sections relating to the service draw on the structures that were established for the Workplace Relations Commission by the 2015 Act. The drug dissuasion service will be administered by representatives from the Departments of Justice and Equality, and Health, along with experts in the field of drug counselling and addition. This is to ensure that the work of the service is cross-departmental in nature and informed by expertise. The service would be able to appoint case officers to handle the individual assessments, conduct harm-reduction research and inform the public regarding controlled substances.

Sections 17 to 20, inclusive, refer to the functions of the service's case officers, and the case assessment and recommendations process. In that process, the engagement between a referred person and his or her case officer is intended to be informal and at a time and place set by the officer. Case officers will be informed of the details of the possession, hear from the person and consider a number of factors including age, addiction, personal circumstances, criminal record and previous engagement with the drug dissuasion service. Following the consideration of all of this, the case officer will be able to recommend attendance at a drug awareness programme, a drug rehabilitation programme or a community engagement process.

Those are the provisions of the Bill. It is the product of months of input from international and domestic experts across a range of fields, from people who work in drug services and from those who use drugs. Niall Neligan, who was the primary drafter of the Bill, is present today. I am confident that it is the right first step towards a more progressive, humane and realistic approach to drug policy, one that focuses on the individual at the heart of drug use. I have worked in this field for almost all of my adult life and I would not be putting it before the House today if I did not believe it would have an immeasurable positive impact on the lives of thousands of people, which I promise it will.

Just before walking in here I received a phone call from my daughter who is only 16 and whose life has also been impacted indirectly by addiction. She said to me, "You know this is so important, Mam, don't you?" That came from a child. Children can see the logical sense in not putting people experiencing drug addiction into prison; there is something wrong with us if we cannot see that too.