Justice minister clashes with Dáil committee over proposed decriminalisation of drugs

Oireachtas Drugs Committee's report called for possession to be no longer a criminal offence — and that the legal provision, under Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, be scrapped.

The minister for justice and the chair of the Oireachtas Drugs Committee have clashed in the Dáil over the decriminalisation of drugs.

Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan was responding to questions from Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon regarding the position of the department to a “central recommendation” of the committee — to repeal the offence of possession.

The committee’s recommendation had the support of both Government party members and opposition members.

The Oireachtas established the committee to examine the findings of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use, which conducted its work in 2023 and reported in January 2024.

The assembly said while the possession of drugs should “remain illegal” in law, possession would be effectively decriminalised in practice. 

It further said the exact legal arrangements should be scrutinised by the Oireachtas.

With the establishment of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use, the Government committed to providing a response to each recommendation of the assembly once it received the report of the Oireachtas committee.

The committee’s report, published last week, went a step further than the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use and called for possession to be no longer a criminal offence — and that the legal provision, under Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, be scrapped.

On Tuesday, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly reiterated the organisation’s opposition to decriminalisation and legalisation, but said gardaí would enforce whatever laws the Oireachtas decideed.

Mr O’Callaghan acknowledged the very significant amount of work conducted by the committee and said he agreed with a large amount of it.

But he said he was of the “strong view” that decriminalisation would “increase the public use of drugs” and, consequently, increase the use of drugs generally.

He said he feared the experiences in Oregon in the US and British Columbia in Canada — which initially adopted forms of decriminalisation but later reversed the policy — would happen here and see an “increase in public disorder” and public use.

Mr Gannon said the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use backed decriminalisation and left it to the Oireachtas to conduct “detailed legal scrutiny”.

He said the committee was “quite fearful” of decriminalisation and examined the Oregon model in detail. He said they found it failed because it did not have “wraparound services”, similar to the experience in British Columbia.

He pointed out Ireland had one of the highest numbers of drug-related deaths in the EU. 

He also said the committee recommended by-laws be introduced to enable gardaí to stop public use of drugs, similar to alcohol.

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Mr Gannon said if people did not stop and move on, gardaí could use public order offences to arrest them.

“I assure the minister that neither I nor anybody else on the committee would enable or support a situation where public consumption of drugs would even potentially increase,” he added.