Campaign group calls for state investment in areas scourged by drugs
CityWide's Anna Quigley has urged 'a fundamental change' in how society addresses drug use, including removing the offence of 'possession' from current drugs legislation. Picture: Jim Berkeley
The political response to the report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use must involve a “major investment in community development” as well as the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use, a national community organisation has said.
The CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign called for the immediate establishment of an Oireachtas Committee on Drugs, which will be tasked by the Government to examine the report and identify how its recommendations can be implemented.
The organisation, which represents communities on the Department of Health’s National Oversight Committee on Drugs, said there were two drug-related deaths every day in Ireland.
“This leaves behind shattered families, friends, neighbours, and communities,” CityWide’s Project Lead Anna Quigley said.
“We cannot waste one more day in bringing about the change that is so urgently needed, as has been set out clearly through the work of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs.”
She said the intent of the assembly, comprising 99 members randomly selected from the population, was to bring about a “fundamental change” in how society addresses the drugs issue.
She described as “crucial” the recommendation to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use.
Ms Quigley said the assembly made it clear it was the responsibility of the Oireachtas to work out how to implement the recommendation on decriminalisation.
“While a previous Government Working Group [in 2019] described this as difficult to do, the Oireachtas Committee can now consider it in more detail and look at how any such difficulties can be addressed and overcome.”
She said the State should focus on reducing drug-related harms: “We know that people from all walks of life use drugs and that many people do not experience problems as a result, but we also know that the greatest impact of drug-related harms continues to be in poor and minority communities, and that this impact continues to be devastating.”
Ms Quigley said: “The Citizens’ Assembly has called for the drugs issue to be a policy priority as part of an overall socio-economic strategy. It is crucial that the new Drugs Strategy is aligned with and underpinned by a national anti-poverty strategy supported by a major investment in community development.”
She said it was key that people who use drugs and their families and the wider community are fully engaged in the decision-making structures at local, regional and national levels.
“In recent years this community development approach to drugs has been more or less removed from our drugs strategy, resulting in centralised decision-making that is not primarily focused on community needs," she said.
Mick Devine of Tabor Group in Cork said there was a need for a proper national treatment network and said the Government should recognise "how effective" community and voluntary agencies are.
Jackie McKenna of the Family Addiction Support Network, based in the north east, urged the Government to support local family projects, pointing out that for every one person in addiction, up to six family members are affected.
"There are a lot of traumatised people with no access to any help," she said.
