Citizens' Assembly must seize opportunity to 'fix drugs crisis before it gets worse'

Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use chairman Paul Reid tells Security Correspondent Cormac O’Keeffe that the assembly needs to be ‘brave and informed’

Chairman Paul Reid speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use, which was held in Malahide, Dublin. The assembly, comprising 99 randomly selected citizens and the independent chairman, will submit a report to the Oireachtas by the end of the year. Picture: Maxwell/PA

It is like doing a master’s degree in six months — that’s how one top Irish drug expert recently described to the Irish Examiner the task facing people on the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use.

The reading list alone would carpet Croke Park, and it’s getting longer all the time.