Community call for Dáil action on decriminalisation.

Members of the Oireachtas,

The scale of the ongoing public health crisis around drugs prompted the establishment of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use. Their conclusions have been explicitly endorsed by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Drug Use. The evidence laid out has made it clear we cannot continue with a status quo that alienates, stigmatizes, and punishes people who use drugs.

It is confounding that this government continues to do more of the same when we have all the evidence it’s making things worse AND it’s not what the public, experts or members of the dedicated Oireachtas Committee want. This comes after hundreds of hours spent considering expert testimony, including those who cautioned against decriminalisation, through the model of deliberative democracy Ireland has been praised for pioneering.

The government has repeatedly stated their drugs policy is guided by a “health-led” approach, yet they have rejected the key means of achieving this. The Citizens’ Assembly, upon considering the international policy evidence, called for the decriminalisation of the person using drugs. The cross-party Oireachtas Committee has provided clear evidence-based guidance on how and why this can be achieved.

Yet senior figures in government and law enforcement are dismissing their findings offhand, in spite of the demonstrable harms of continuing to address this health crisis through policing rather than healthcare.

We know from speaking to individual representatives from all political parties, that there is broad support for modernising Ireland’s drugs laws, reflecting popular support from the Irish people.

We call upon Oireachtas members to push for a proactive, principled, and evidence-based approach to decriminalising people who use drugs.

There are three reforms in particular that should be enacted as a matter of urgency;

Yours,