Leader Peadar Tóibín responds to the recommendation by the Oireachtas committee today to decriminalise possession of all drugs for personal use.
Said Tóibín: “First of all people will be shocked that heroin and coke would be included in this.”
“Decriminalising drug possession would be a backfire and would lead to personal drug use becoming socially acceptable.”
He said: “This is removing the criminal element and deals with drugs like they are a minor road traffic offence. It’s legalising by another name.
“There is already a very permissive attitude towards cannabis in particular, as anyone who walks through our cities knows. It’s everywhere, and it’s awful. From other cities’ experience, that gets much worse.
“The purpose of a law is a deterrent. Most people want to remain within the law. This is a deterrent for most people. Only 10% of the population use drugs on a regular basis. This is far lower than alcohol.
“It is much easier as a parent to persuade a child not to take drugs given that its illegal. What would the state decriminalisation of heroin do to the status of that drug in the minds of a young person? Decriminalising possession for your own use is tacit state approval.
“Drugs have serious effects, even at the lower end of the scale. For example, cannabis have been strongly linked with psychosis and schizophrenia. Its leads to depression. It leads to withdrawal from so much of healthy life.
“On one hand the government is talking about banning cigarettes because it causes lung cancer while at the same time decimalising smoking hash that causes lung cancer.
“Advocates of this say it can be replaced with drug rehabilitation clinics, and supports and facilities. But there is no reason the two things can’t exist at the same time. You can have a health approach at a justice approach at the same time.
“The argument that it increases those seeking drug treatment is spurious. It hasn’t worked in a number of countries such as Canada and Portugal, where it was a failure. Instead it led to open air drug markets and a huge increase in public use. That’s the reality of it.”
“It did not drive-up people accessing therapies and it did drive up public use. Public use becomes widespread. There is an initial treatment increase and then that falls right back.
They are nor decriminalising supply, so this leaves the supply with criminals, with all of the murderous damage that this makes.
“Any drugs policy must have as its objectives fewer users, fewer lives destroyed by addiction, fewer people have their mental health damaged by drug use.
“Decriminalization of drugs can lead to increased in drugs use. It can lead to increased levels of harm. It can lead to increased overdose and deaths.”
