Dáil drug use committee chair accuses Simon Harris of 'classism' over comments on 'middle Ireland'

Gary Gannon said there would be 'no gardaí standing outside the toilets of rugby clubs or pubs all over Ireland this week', and 'middle Ireland' was not facing criminal retribution for taking drugs

Simon Harris urged caution around decriminalisation and raised concerns about 'middle Ireland' facilitating gangland crime by 'snorting coke, popping pills, and smoking joints'.

Tánaiste Simon Harris and justice minister Jim O'Callaghan have been accused of "classism" over their comments on the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use.

Gary Gannon, chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Drug Use also said there would be "no gardaí standing outside the toilets of rugby clubs or pubs all over Ireland this week”, and “middle Ireland” was not facing criminal retribution for taking drugs.

The Social Democrats TD was responding to comments made by Simon Harris in the Dáil on Thursday, when he urged caution around decriminalisation and raised concerns about "middle Ireland" facilitating gangland crime by “snorting coke, popping pills, and smoking joints”.

The Oireachtas Committee on Drug Use published a report on Wednesday which contained 161 recommendations, including the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use and the introduction of a “health-led” approach.

Like Mr Harris, Mr O’Callaghan called for “caution” around decriminalisation, saying there was a need to be “careful” about introducing laws or policies that could “increase the incidence of drug taking”.

The Tánaiste and Mr O’Callaghan also both acknowledged there needed to be a health response to drug addiction.

Mr Gannon told the Irish Examiner “nobody disagrees” it is wrong to take drugs or that those taking them are funding gangs.

However, he said it “doesn’t get to the heart of the matter”.

“The people popping pills, the people snorting coke, they're not the ones getting criminal sanction,” Mr Gannon said.

“If criminal sanctions worked, they wouldn't be doing it, but they're not the ones fearful that they're going to get a criminal sanction.

“Decriminalisation will mostly benefit people who are the most vulnerable. We all go to the same festivals, we've all been to the same nightclubs, the evidence is that drugs are rampant throughout the country.”

He said the same gangs Mr Harris was referring to were now “grooming children into crime”, and drug-related intimidation was now becoming more common.

He said decriminalisation did not mean being “soft on crime”, but it “allows the guards to go after those who are actually enacting the violence rather than the ones who are suffering from it”.

Mr Gannon said both Mr Harris and Mr O’Callaghan “lacked any depth” when talking about this issue, branding this “disappointing” as the work of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil members of the Oireachtas Committee on Drug Use was “genuinely amazing”.

“From both Simon Harris and the justice minister, there is genuinely both a classist element of it and also just a lack of understanding,” Mr Gannon continued.

“The justice minister seemed to be conflating legalisation with decriminalisation. But then Simon Harris, when he's asked about decriminalisation, referring to people popping pills and taking coke, they're not the ones who are getting criminally sanctioned.

“You're talking about one community, but the law has only fallen on a very different cohort. Within that, there is absolutely a classist approach.”

A spokesperson for Mr Harris told the Irish Examiner they would refer Mr Gannon to the “totality of his comments in the Dáil and his previous work on introducing a health-led approach to the possession of drugs for personal use”.