Minister should ask Irish people first if they agree with injection centres

Reports have emerged that Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Minister of State for Culture and Equality, is to announce to an academic conference in London he intends to introduce legislation to facilitate the establishment of taxpayer-funded, medically supervised, injection centres in Dublin and elsewhere for the convenience and comfort of drug addicts.

He is to also tell his English audience he wants Irish people to remove the stigma attaching to the ingestion of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, thereby regarding drug addiction as normal, safe, civilised and sociable behaviour.

The junior minister has not cited a scintilla of evidence, operating precedent, research or cost-benefit analysis to persuade the public his proposition has any merit or credibility. His suggestion about eliminating the stigma attaching to drug addiction would imply this can be achieved through political posturing, blended with myopic indifference by the public towards the threat of menace and criminality confronting them.