Lenihan rejects festival drugs proposal

JUSTICE Minister Brian Lenihan yesterday firmly rejected a call from a respected drug counselling service that people caught with small amounts of cannabis and other drugs at festivals should not be prosecuted.

The call was made by Crosscare, a Catholic drug counselling agency attached to the Dublin Archdiocese, on the eve of an independent study into its service.

Crosscare is recommending that people caught by gardaí smoking a cannabis joint or with very small amounts of other drugs at concerts like Oxegen and Electric Picnic be referred to drug professionals for assessment. The body said counselling time, police time and court time was being “wasted” by putting such users through the criminal justice system.