Citizens’ Assembly doesn't have 'expertise or time' to identify law changes on drug possession

Citizens' Assembly chair Paul Reid told members of the Oireachtas Drugs Committee 'you are the legislators' after Sinn Féin deputy Mark Ward put it to him 'you are pushing it back to us', to untangle the legal issues. File photo: Maxwell Photography/PA

The chair of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs told members of the Oireachtas Drugs Committee that it didn’t have the “expertise or time” to identify what laws needed to be changed to implement their recommendation to decriminalise possession of drugs for personal use.

Paul Reid said “you are the legislators” after Sinn Féin deputy Mark Ward put it to him “you are pushing it back to us”, to untangle the legal issues.

A number of members of the special committee, which held its first meeting on Thursday in examining the 36 recommendations of the assembly, highlighted difficulties in determining what exactly the assembly wanted to happen and how.

In its January report, the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs (CAD) also recommended: a dedicated Cabinet committee, chaired by the Taoiseach; increased support for disadvantaged communities; greater focus on prevention and recovery; expanded harm reduction and strengthened garda measures to tackle drug-related intimidation and gangland violence.

Mr Reid said that because there was disagreement, particularly among lawyers, over what decriminalisation of drugs meant, the assembly focused instead on what it wanted.

“We were advised to set out what we want to achieve — [which was] we don’t want people to get a criminal conviction for personal use — and we left open some complex issues,” Mr Reid said.

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He said these legal issues included whether current legislation needed to be changed, what limitations should there be for personal use, how many times can a person be diverted to a health intervention and who applies any sanctions.

Mr Reid said it was up to the Attorney General and others to advise the Oireachtas on this.

But he stressed what CAD recommended was a “paradigm shift” — to take drug possession out of the criminal justice system into a health system.

Both he and CAD head of secretariat, Cathal O’Regan, stressed that under their recommendation possession of drugs for personal use would still be illegal and an offence, but that gardaí would divert anyone caught with personal amounts of drugs to a health intervention.

Committee vice-chair Lynne Ruane pressed them on this and said that if the possession of drugs was no longer considered a criminal activity why would gardaí still have the power to stop and search someone for drugs, unless it was for selling drugs.

Mr Regan said it was “very complicated” and that efforts to explain decriminalisation can be “confusing and problematic”.

He said the model they recommended — a comprehensive health-led approach — was similar to that in Austria and Portugal, where the first point of contact was the police.

He said in Portugal possession continued to be an offence, but that once the police referred the person to a health commission that should be the end of their involvement, except where the person doesn’t co-operate with the commission.

Deputy Ward, representing Dublin Mid-West, said the “biggest scourge” was drug-related intimidation. He said some people had asked him about the impact of decriminalisation on “personal use in public spaces” with fears it might increase anti-social behaviour.

Sinn Féin deputy for Cork North Central, Thomas Gould, said the first thing that should be done is “increasing resources and staffing” in community services, including detox and residential beds.

Associate Professor in Addiction Jo-Hanna Ivers said the political will to act was required, adding: “When we have political will, we get things done.”