Landmark Cabinet decision backs drug-injecting centres
The Government agreed to proposals, pushed by minister of state for drugs strategy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and supported by Health Minister Leo Varadkar, to establish a medically supervised injecting centre.
Mr Ó Ríordáin told the Irish Examiner he was “delighted” and said there was “round-table support” at the Cabinet. He said there were “operational concerns” from gardaí, but said they were not objecting to it.
He said the centre would be set up on a pilot basis in Dublin city centre and would then be reviewed.
“That makes sense, to establish if there are any operational issues that need to be teased out,” said Mr Ó Ríordáin.
He said he had already been “lobbied intensively” by local drug taskforces and projects in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Galway, for similar facilities.
He said legislation would provide for the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs at a centre licensed by the minister of health.
The provision will be included as an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Bill 2015, which was drafted to recriminalise drugs deemed legal after a High Court ruling earlier this year.
Mr Ó Ríordáin said the amended legislation would be published in “early 2016” and said the “incoming government can’t ignore” it.
He estimated that it would take “12 to 18 months for the operation of the centre to be nailed down”.
He said the centres “do not support or promote drug use,” but tried “to prevent death and injury”. He said street injecting was unhygenic and unsafe, both for the users and the public.
The Cabinet decision comes as a Health Research Board report records a rise in heroin deaths, half of which involved injecting. Almost 40% of injecting deaths were in homeless accommodation or on the street.
Tony Duffin of the Ana Liffey Drug Project welcomed the decision, saying the centres were a “compassionate and effective response”.
