Department of Health holds off developing new national drugs strategy

Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use chairman Paul Reid addressing members ahead of voting on final recommendations in Dublin in October 2023. The subsequent report said a draft version of a new national drugs strategy should be published by June 2024. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The Department of Health is holding off developing a new national drugs strategy despite calls by the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use for it to be published “as a matter of urgency”.

In its report in January, the Citizens’ Assembly said a draft version of the new strategy should be published by June this year and put out to public consultation. It said the draft version needed to include the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly, contain action plans and measurable targets, and detail the responsible departments and agencies.

The current drugs strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery, covers the period 2017 to 2025.

It is understood that the newly established special Oireachtas committee on drugs use has made enquiries with the Department of Health to determine the progress of the strategy.

The committee, which is tasked with examining the report and its 36 recommendations, is expected to start public hearings next week.

It has been given a maximum period of seven months to conduct its work and, on foot of its report and the Citizens’ Assembly recommendations, the Government is due to give its formal response.

As reported yesterday, the committee is expected to produce ‘interim reports’ to cover the eventuality that the general election is called early, in October or November, as many expect.

Recommendation

Recommendation number seven in the Citizens’ Assembly report said: “Government should publish a new iteration of the national drugs strategy as a matter of urgency. A first draft should be published by June 2024 for consultation, with the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly as a key input.”

The Department of Health said that following a mid-term review in 2021, six “strategic priorities” were agreed for the second phase of the strategy.

It said that under the department’s national oversight committee, strategic implementation groups with independent chairpersons were established to develop and monitor a Strategic Action Plan for 2023 and 2024, which outlined 34 actions.

The department said it is commissioning an evaluation of the action plan, the oversight structures for the national drugs strategy, the strategic implementation groups, and the six strategic priorities, and it expected the evaluation will be completed by the end of this year.

“The recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use will provide the building blocks for the next national drugs strategy and Strategic Action Plan in 2025,” said the statement.

It said the Oireachtas drugs committee is expected to report at the end of 2024.

“Finalisation of the new national drugs strategy is expected in the first half of 2025,” said the department.