The Government appears to have set its face against decriminalising the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use, as called for by an Oireachtas Committee set up to review the recommendations of the January 2024 Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use.
There has been no official announcement, but the signals coming from the Coalition make it clear there is little appetite for the move at Cabinet level. The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, has kicked for touch, despite an explicit commitment in Fianna Fáil’s election manifesto to decriminalise drug possession for personal use. The Tánaiste Simon Harris and the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan have urged caution.
The gap between the law as it is currently implemented and what is proposed is small enough. However, moving to the recommended “health-led” approach is still a significant change, as the committee’s report said .
In terms of enforcement, the Garda have had the power to give an Adult Caution in lieu of prosecution for the possession of small amounts of cannabis since 2020. They tend to only prosecute repeat offenders. Similarly, cases involving the possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin and MDMA are dealt with in the District Court and often result in a warning or a fine.
RM Block
The proposed changes are in line with World Health Organisation policy recommendations as outlined by Anja Busse, the organisation’s lead on drugs, who was in Dublin last week. Limited decriminalisation is of a piece with the wider policy advocated by the WHO of seeing drug use as a health issue rather than a criminal justice one; something the Taoiseach claims is de facto Government policy.
While the government of the day has often moved in response to the recommendations of citizens’ assemblies, it is clear that on this occasion Ministers do not believe public support is there for the decriminalisation of limited drug use.
The message such a move would send to young people is one reason for their concern, as it could be seen as the Government implicitly giving the go-ahead for drugs use. Demand also fuels illegal supply and underpins serious criminality in the supply chain. Change would thus require complex messaging, a central element of which would be that the policy change is, as the chair of the committee Gary Gannon said “not a softening of the State’s resolve on drugs .”
The decision – or lack of a decision – can also be seen as another sign of the more hawkish line on law and order adopted by this administration. But the committee’s work was comprehensive and its 161 recommendations deserve proper Government consideration, particulary given the failure of the current policy approach to limit the spread of many drugs.
