The Government has launched a consultation on plans to decriminalise Ireland’s drug laws for personal use.
Under the Department of Health’s draft drugs strategy, the Government commits “to a health-led approach to drug use” which will prioritise “health supports over criminal sanctions”.
In 2024, the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use called for the wholesale liberalisation of laws on the possession of illegal drugs, including cocaine, cannabis, heroin, and opioids.
Decriminalisation
Alongside prevention and treatment, the National Drugs Strategy 2026-2029 adopts a ‘harm reduction’ response to drug use. It also claims that the criminal justice system is not equipped “to deal with personal drug issues”.
Proposals include “specific actions to divert those found in possession of drugs for personal use to health services” and a commitment to “explore the establishment of additional supervised injection facilities”.
The first Government-sanctioned ‘shooting gallery’, where users can take drugs without fear of prosecution, opened in Dublin last year.
Writing in the Irish Examiner, Cormac O’Keefe observed: “The previous drugs strategy (albeit twice as long as the draft) mentioned the word ‘garda’ 55 times, while the draft refers to ‘garda’ on 11 occasions. The word ‘illegal’ (regarding drug use) is used 37 in the previous strategy; three times in the new.”
Without sanction
Addressing the Dáil’s Joint Committee on Drug Use recently, senior officer Angela Willis expressed An Garda Síochána’s support for a “non-sanctioned outcome” with people “found in possession of a quantity of a controlled substance that we believe is for their own personal use”.
The force’s Assistant Commissioner Organised and Serious Crime explained to TDs and Senators that the policy “is not finalised just yet”, but confirmed that on the first occasion a person is caught with a controlled drug, “a health referral” will automatically be made.
She continued: “I am giving the committee the broad outline of what it might look like. On the first occasion, as a blanket they will be referred. That is it for all drug types.
“On the second occasion, the adult caution at present provides for an adult caution in relation to cannabis use. It does not provide it in relation to other drug substances.”
‘Everywhere’
Earlier this year, the Irish Daily Mail reported that teenagers as young as 15 are buying drugs online, including heroin and cocaine, for as little as €40 through an unnamed social media shop.
Maebh Mullany, CEO of rehabilitation facility the Rutland Centre, believes that drug use is now widespread: “You hear from people that are coming in from treatment that it’s literally everywhere. It’s in the lockers, it’s in school, it’s after sport.”
“We even hear from clients coming into treatment that there’s an app that people can use to order as well to be delivered by drones.”
Canada scraps drug decriminalisation policy: ‘It didn’t work’