There’s a lesson from Lisbon that has nothing to do with that treaty

Drug use remains illegal in Portugal. People are still stopped by the police and have their drugs confiscated. But drug use there is seen as a health, not a judicial, issue. Crucially, anyone caught with less than what is determined to be a 10-day personal supply is not arrested and does not face jail

YOU couldn’t accuse the Taoiseach of over-promising: “The National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016, aimed at reducing the prevalence and harm of drug misuse, has enormous potential for good … I have no doubt that the strategy and the efforts of all those involved in implementing it will change many people’s lives for the better.” Potential for good, changing lives for the better, yes, but actually reducing the abuse of narcotics, well, he wasn’t fool enough to predict that.

The strategy document contains no fewer than 63 recommendations, many of them sensible and humane. Shops selling drug paraphernalia will be monitored; all schools will have to develop substance use policies; detox facilities and methadone services will be expanded; an office of the minister for drugs will be created; prison security will be increased to reduce the availability of illegal drugs.