Citizens’ Assembly recommendations on drugs should be ‘expedited’ – Gannon

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon speaking to the media outside Leinster House in Dublin. Picture date: Tuesday October 24, 2023.

A Social Democrats TD has called for the Government to act “quickly” on the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use.

The body voted on and agreed 36 recommendations for Government over the weekend, aimed at producing a new Irish model of legislation, policy and service to reduce the harm caused by illicit drugs use.

One of its recommendations is “significant changes to laws governing penalties for possession of drugs for personal use”.

This has been described as “effectively amounting to decriminalisation”, and an approach based on health-led interventions rather than through convictions via the criminal justice system.

Speaking to reporters outside Leinster House on Tuesday, Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said: “The recommendations that were made were in keeping, probably, with what communities the length and breadth of this country that have been devastated by drugs have understood – that the core model simply doesn’t work.” 

He said people have been waiting for the recommendation to effectively decriminalise personal possession of drugs for “a very long time”.

“It shouldn’t sit on a shelf, it shouldn’t be that Government – who ostensibly have about 15 months left unless they go early – could just simply say ‘Well, that’s for the next people to do’.

“Well, I want to get stuck into it right now, actually.” Mr Gannon said it is “incumbent” upon Government to act upon the recommendations.

There does not have to be a huge amount of deliberation in relation to these proposals. Many of the suggestions, many of the expert testimony, much of the evidence has been in the public domain for a very, very long time.

“So what we’ve called for is for the actions of this report to be expedited quickly. If that’s a cross-party committee overseen by the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Health, so be it.

“And then let’s get to work on the legislation. Because I don’t think we can wait two, three years. Certainly the communities that we represent don’t want to wait that long. They’ve waited long enough.”