Colette Kelleher: We need a drugs policy that puts people first 

We hope that next year’s citizens' assembly on drugs use will clearly set out policies that put people with addictions and what works best for them first, offering real hope for better days ahead for themselves and their families

Next year’s citizens' assembly will take into consideration the struggles of those with addictions as well as their families, in communities and workplaces across the entire country.

Earlier this year, Minister of State for Drugs Strategy Frank Feighan announced that a citizens' assembly will take place in 2023 to examine the effectiveness of Ireland’s current policy on drugs. 

This follows several countries, including Portugal and Canada, who have already reexamined their policies and set new directions.

The Government’s current strategy ‘Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery’, which is a health-led approach, runs until 2025. The work of Tabor Group is framed and publicly funded within this policy. 

Next year’s citizens' assembly is a timely consideration of the impact on this strategy and other policies on people. It will take into consideration the struggles of those with addictions as well as their families, in communities and workplaces across the entire country.

The citizens' assembly on drugs use will want to understand what is happening in the real world for people in relation to drugs in Ireland. It will examine the impacts of harmful drug use on people in Ireland today. 

It will consider the different ways of supporting people with addictions to reduce harm, reach recovery and see what solutions are most effective. 

Assembly members will be informed by what we can learn from other countries as well as from our ‘lived’ experiences closer to home.

Once it has taken testimonies and examined the evidence, assembly members will make recommendations to the Government. The selected citizens will recommend what approaches work best for the people struggling with addictions. 

They will point out what is getting in the way and what should change to create a drugs policy that reduces harm and helps people recover their health, relationships and lives.

Tabor Group has more than 30 years of experience providing treatment and support to people with addictions and their families. We will be taking part in the national conversation on the evolution of a drugs policy that best supports recovery. 

In 2021, over 1000 people reached out to Tabor Group for support, and we provided treatment to over 300 people and their families.

People come to Tabor Group with concerns and challenges spanning both alcohol and drugs. We will make our submission to the citizens' assembly about what we know from our experience, and the suite of law and policy we think most likely to support a person’s recovery. This has always been a key concern for Tabor Group, past, present and into the future.

At Tabor Group, we do have initial thoughts for the citizens' assembly on drugs use. Tabor Group is part of and favours a health-led Government approach to supporting people with both drug and alcohol addictions. Mental health concerns, with deep roots in past traumas, are often the other side of the same coin, and need to be attended to alongside the person’s addiction.

Our treatment programmes for both drug and alcohol addictions take a common approach. We focus on supporting the person to ‘recovery’ through trauma-informed individual and group therapy, working with people’s families, as well as continuing care after treatment.

But here’s the difference, unlike drugs, once you are over 18, it is legal to be in possession of alcohol for your own consumption. Prohibition, as happened in the US in the 1920s and 30s was widely regarded as a failed policy.

However instead of being directed first and foremost to addiction treatment, such as one of Tabor Group treatment programmes, currently a person with an addiction found in possession of ‘illegal’ drugs for their own consumption, even in small amounts, can be arrested, charged, face the courts and carry a conviction, with grave and ongoing consequences for future employment and even impeding their chances of recovery. 

Unfortunately, these measures also disproportionately affect people from poorer backgrounds and minorities.

At Tabor Group, we hope the citizens' assembly comes out strongly in favour of and strengthens the health-led approach for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction in Ireland. 

We will urge the citizen members to have the courage to look at ‘decriminalisation’ of the possession of illegal drugs for personal use for people with addictions. 

We hope they critically evaluate the efficacy of the current ‘criminal justice’ approaches which, anecdotally, don’t seem to work for people with addictions, but rather cost time and public money which no doubt could be put to better use.

Instead, Tabor Group would like all our collective efforts, energies and resources to be directed to supporting people with drug and alcohol addictions, with the full range of health-led and other supports like housing, that people need for a sustainable recovery. 

We will share our thoughts with the citizens' assembly. We hope that when the assembly reports to the Government, it will clearly set out policies that put people with addictions and what works best for them first, offering real hope for better days ahead for themselves and their families.

• Colette Kelleher is chief executive of Tabor Group, based in Cork, which provides residential addiction treatment services