Education on drug policy vital

Public education on the difference between drug legalisation and drug decriminalisation is a crucial next step for any health-led drug policy in Ireland, according to Dr James Windle, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at University College Cork (UCC).

He said that legalisation – where substances are made available for sale and regulated on the market - is often confused with decriminalisation – where possession of drugs for personal use is decriminalised, but the substances themselves and their sale remain illegal – which makes informed debate on the subject very difficult.

“The problem comes partly from the fact that there are so many different ways to do decriminalisation. These can range from nobody gets arrested, to small fines, to diversion to treatment,” said Dr Windle.

However, the differences between the two approaches are significant.

Under a model of legalisation, the evidence has shown that consumption of drugs increases. Not only are the drugs more easily obtainable as they can now be sold freely, but they can also be advertised to drug users.

Decriminalisation by contrast, does not make the drugs easier to obtain. Drug users will still need to source the drugs (from people who are selling them illegally), they still have to go out of their way to find them, and the drugs themselves will still be expensive. These all act as deterrents to an increase in use.

Crucially though, a decriminalisation approach reduces the amount of people who are being sent into prisons, because those found with small amounts of drugs for personal use are (ideally) directed to health services, rather than being sent into the criminal justice system.

“Building a new prison is not the answer to a lack of prison spaces. There are a lot of people in prison who should not be in prison, but who should be in treatment instead,” said Dr Windle.

What is needed with this approach is major investment in health services in Ireland.

“Decriminalisation isn’t going to work unless we invest in addiction services. We don’t have enough detox beds, we don’t have enough money going into residential addiction services.

“But it also includes GPs being taught about addiction, and an investment in mental health services to support those in treatment. The extension of naxalone and other harm reduction products will be vital, as will safe injection facilities. The HSE’s drug checking initiative needs to be commended, as do the gardaí for supporting it,” said Dr Windle.

A transition away from a punitive approach to drug users does not reduce the role which the criminal justice system has in challenging the drug trade but rather refocuses it.

Dr Windle said: “The role of the criminal justice system is to contain the market through arrests, disruption, and seizures. Customs are very good at this. Small arrests do very little if anything to disrupt the market, it’s big arrests which have a disruptive effect.

“The big issue going forward is not going to be policing, it’s going to be how do you save someone who is overdosing on a new synthetic opioid. Our drug market is changing rapidly, and there a lot of new synthetic opioids which are becoming available.

“Drug use is going to become riskier, the market is becoming more dangerous, and the role of policing is in disrupting this new supply,” he said.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.