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NEARLY HALF OF people in Ireland are against the proposal to no longer make it a criminal offence for a person to possess a small amount of drugs for personal use, according to a new poll.
However, there is significantly stronger backing for the idea among men with 51% favouring the decriminalisation idea compared to 35% of women.
The findings of the Claire Byrne Live/Amárach Research poll show that 43% of all people favour decriminalisation, while 46% are against it. Eleven per cent said they don’t know.
The poll indicates a general split amongst the public in their views on the proposal put forward by Drugs Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin this week.
In a speech in London this week, Ó Ríordáin said he favoured the decriminalisation model used in Portugal where, since 2001, possession and use of small quantities of certain drugs is treated as a public health issue rather than a criminal one.
“I am in favour of a decriminalisation model, but it must be one that suits the Irish context and be evidence based,” Ó Ríordáin told an audience at the London School of Economics.
It’s reported that decriminalisation in Ireland could be applied to drugs including cannabis, heroin and cocaine where the possession of small amount for personal use would not be subject to criminal sanctions.
The majority of people aged between 18 and 24 (54%) are against the idea while regionally the strongest support for the proposal is in Dublin where 46% think it’s a good idea.
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54% of 18-24 were against the idea?? Were they asked the question on front of their parents?
Peer pressure in action… Next you’ll be telling young people everyone does it and asking don’t they want to be cool.
It’s a longstanding expectation that with increased availability , potency & quality combined with access to information from the Internet that the majority of the youth would support ending a 40 year old expensive & life destroying policy. Taboo has been broken in Czech Republic, Portugal, Holland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and many other countries worldwide. Only a matter of time before ireland does the same.
Seems like many are confusing decriminalised with legalised. Your local corner shop isn’t going to start selling 50 bags relax people.
One can dream.
Well i think its funny you can be arrested and imprisioned for carrying cannabis leafs around ..but if you were to carry foxgloves around its perfectly legal yet of those plants could be used to kill hundreds of people
How?
The law appears disproportionate, hypocritical and therefore unjust.
Apparently women aren’t on-board with the whole “my body, my choice” thing
Bit surprised by those figures against the motion. Are people afraid decriminalisation means our streets will be awash with opium and the Afghani goats that come with it? The results from Portugal have been seriously encouraging. Gardaí resources are stretched enough as it is with local stations closing down. Using the money saved from court dates for small bags of weed would reduce pressure on a clogged judicial system (+1 less potential criminal record) and workload of stretched Gardaí. If that’s not a net gain, I don’t know what is. The progressive climate Ireland are currently enjoying needs to cover this topic IMO.
people are just quite naive regarding some of the more controversial issues out there, ignorant of the facts but they push with an agenda. just look at so-called pro-life people, even the term is ridiculous
Maybe heroin should continue to be illegal. I wonder how it’s exclusion from the list would effect the poll.
They are all still illegal Rory. Decriminalising is the important part and i wonder if this is what threw people off.
It’s hard to put heroin use into the sane bracket as cannabis use
That’s not the point though. Why should courts waste time prosecuting peole for holding small amounts of personal drugs even heroine. It’s a victimless crime and if these people were not treated as criminals then it may be much easier for them to turn their life’s around. This also keeps the business exclusively in the hands of criminals. If the war on drugs has thought us that people will take what they want regardless of the penalty. It’s time to stop wasting government resources and garda time chasing and arresting adults who chose to take a drug, hurting nobody but themselves
Victimless crime??? Most junkies are out stealing to fund their habits… Ask their families how they feel about the drug use…
Mark, carrying and using heroine is a victimless crime. Stealing from someone is not. I’m not sure what your point is as they are 2 separate crimes. Weather the drug is illegal or not this would happen as you have just pointed out. Also I’m of the opinion that most of the people who are willing to rob from someone else would be the kind of person to do it on or off drugs. But much like your previous comment it is only an opinion
I think his point is … In order to get his “victimless heroin” he’s probably going to rob some old age pensioner in there home….or worse…. So tell me RC were do you think he gets the money from ?..
Give them there heroine free take the crime out of the equation it would be far cheaper than prison and help addicts engage with the health and addiction providers
“Most people” is not correct, about 23% of heroin users are classed as dependent. Suggesting heroin automatically turns you into a family robbing “junkie” is like looking at temple bar at four in the morning and proclaiming every alcohol user is a belligerent a*shole. The addicts are addicts because of past traumas, these people should be helped not caged. Anyway it’s cheaper and better for the rest of us.
The Portuguese model shows hard drug use goes down when decriminalised especially among young people.
Thank you zoltar, you put it far better than my attempts
Rory, I disagree, I feel heroin SHOULD be legal, but actually see my point first before jumping to conclusions… There’s going to be heroin users & addicts in Ireland regardless of the legality of heroin -not to forget to mention that pure heroin is white; heroin is not brown -, I’d support legalisation for the sole reason of heroin addicts are going to know exactly what they’re getting, how potent it is (reducing risk of overdose) and better treatment options can be provided. Just because a drug is legal or decriminalised doesn’t necessarily mean it opens up the door to abuse. Look at alcohol, we all know people: who drink; who don’t drink; who abuse alcohol..
my god such a loaded poll question…………..cannabis with lumped with heroin and cocaine. do a poll on legalising cannabis only and see how that fares…………….. no the govt would rather scare the public by putting it in the same basjet as heroin and cocaine,
Surprised at these figures myself. Considering the percentage of drug usage in Ireland. And considering we have two of the most damaging drugs wholly accepted and even encouraged already legal (nicotine and alcohol for those who’s heads are under a rock). An addict, by definition, will use their drug despite repeated negative consequences. That is what makes an addict. This is a fact and cannot be disputed. Therefore regardless of the legal standing of a substance an addict will use it. Whether he/she uses it in a dirty lane and discards the needle in a public area (or worse passes it on) or uses it in a clean, sterile area where the needle is disposed of safely and is offered various forms of recovery and encouragement to seek further help, they’re still gonna use. Addicts use. Addicts will continue to use. Despite legal or non-legal. So why not attempt to control and supervise their use? Take them off the streets? Allow Gardaí and the courts to tackle more serious issues. And hopefully provide a degree of help to those individuals caught in addiction…. And frankly I’m not even going to bother replying to the whole let-em-OD, buncha-rotten-junkies crowd because frankly you’re idiots and need to pick up a book, that is of course if you manage to pull your thumbs out of your hole long enough to turn the pages. Wow. Kinda let myself down at the end there eh?! :p
Big few months ahead for Irish drug policy
https://irishcannabis.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/where-next-for-irish-drug-policy/
We must follow a more progressive and liberal model as we do for prostitution.
People who buy drugs should be criminalised. People who sell drugs should not be criminalised because they are victims.
We can learn a lot from the Scandinavians.
I hope this is sarcasm!
It most certainly is not
It most certainly is
It’s pretty good sarcasm too, if you ask me
Lost on most people seemingly
Criminalising those who use drugs has brought many unintended consequences and we cannot say we have control. Educating people about safe drugs/drug use is the way forward.
The illegality of recreational drugs is the one hurdle that keeps many people away from them, me included. Remove that and you will have more young people taking recreational drugs
So if you could purchase drugs legally in the morning you’d be shooting up heroin or snorting ketamine go beat the band? People can obtain illegal drugs in no time. Where are you living?!
The same daft logic is used by the faithful in choosing to not rape and murder because their book of spells tells them not to rather than having the wit to make the decision themselves.
There needs to be a programme on TV and show these people before and after cocaine and when eventually they become addicts what it does to there lives and there health and to the lives of their families I sometimes wonder about people are they living under a stone that they are so blind to the danger of drugs
When I was in my early 20s coke was everywhere in my area. Almost everyone I knew used to take it. It resulted in great nights and now none of us have touched it In years. I’m talking about about a lot if people here, none of whom went on to major addiction destroying their life’s. This is the problem with drug debates. We have people like you who scream the loudest, whipping up mass hysteria when you know nothing about it. How about we tell people about my experiences that when done responsibly resulted in some great nights out
And what about the show on how alchol addiction ruins lives?
Robert no disrespect to you or your friends but that is the biggest load of shit I have ever heard that u all dabbled in cocaine and hard drugs and not one you became addicted I would not have a diploma on drugs but I saw everything I still see today what it does to families and to the individual that’s taking them don’t try to glamourise it
I totally agree with you if not taken in moderation worst drug of all
Donal the kind of people that decend into life destroying addiction are almost always people with underlying self destructive mental conditions, who mostly use to self medicate. These kinds of people will always exist and they should be helped rather than criminalized. The vast majority of people can use recreational drugs with no bad consequences, much like alcohol. But you know “won’t somebody please think of the children!!”
Robert we will have to agree to disagree
@robert here’s a small point looking at the bigger picture. The hundred euro bag you snorted with your mates was bought from a “mate” no doubt. That mate bought it from a dealer that dealer is undoubtedly a person who would never pipe bomb/assault/intimidate a person for monies owed. Let alone give the person an early grave for a debt, but you’re probably right, it’s recreational with no bad consequences.
You cannot possibly make any such statements meaningful when using the collective term ‘drugs’.
They are all different – very different. With vastly different effects including levels of addiction (or none).
Three very different drugs are mentioned in the article. And the notion that one leads to another is so evidentially rediculous as to be simply wanton ignorance.
Legalise (not just decriminalise), but regulate, is the only sane policy from social, health and economics standpoints.
It’s quite obvious that cannabis use is already very widespread and causes no problems for adult users. It should be treated similarly to alcohol. And it should be noted that since it is by far the most widely used, it also soaks up most Garda and Court resources to no public purpose whatever. There’s a major economic resource boost to be had straight away from cannabis legalisation.
Heroin is not widely used but is highly addictive and most often used by people who already have mental and social problems. (Social deprivations, abusive homes, unemployment etc are all closely linked.) It makes sense to remove the criminality from it, whilst not making it as widely available. Allow people to buy it for personal use, with adult ID, from pharmacies, and with records kept as required there with prescription drugs.
In fact, pharmacies, already strictly regulated businesses, should be the outlet for most other substances aside from cannabis and alcohol. Given the harm done by tobacco use, their sales should be moved to pharmacies exclusively also.
With one or two exceptions (among those presently illegal), drugs are not, and should not be allowed to be treated as just another ‘consumer’ product.
Prohibition doesn’t work and has never worked – it makes every aspect, personal social, health, economics etc. have worse outcomes.
But measures to prohibit marketing and promotion activities *do* work to prevent trivial and ‘lifestyle’ use of any product. (Tobacco Cos. are well aware of this, and is why they are lobbying so hard against restrictions.)
Plain packaging, limited outlets, purchase records kept etc. all signal that users should treat psychoactive drug use with appropriate knowledge and consideration.
This is what grown-up policy should look like in a functioning, evidence and empathy based democracy. Unfortunately, as obvious from events in banking and economics policy of these last decades, we are a very long way from that.
Who knows? Maybe a little careful and considered psychoactive drug use might even help to reform the current widespread fraud and incompetence generally in public policy making?
First of all I never mentioned one leads to the other and I know the way you talk you have a very good knowledge of drugs so much so you have convinced yourself that they should be sold over the counter and they would be good for the economy .We would have Country full of zombies
@filthypete.. the pipe bomb/assault/intimidations you speak of are a direct manifestation of prohibitionist policy: were the drugs legalised and regulated, violent criminal elements would no longer have involvement in the traffic, sale or contamination of the drugs. The bad consequences are a result of criminalisation rather than the drugs themselves.
Christ Donal, if I had never experienced a car journey before but worked in a morgue exclusively consisting of decapitated car crash victims, I’d have a pretty skewed opinion on the dangers of cars. That’s what people like you sound like when you enter drug debates. Stick to the statistics, man.
I didn’t enter this discussion without experience and every single person that has made a case for legalising drugs falls on deaf ears .
Okay well can I make a case then?
1. There has never been proof that making drugs illegal reduces consumption. Over each of the last five decades, the amount of money spent worldwide in combating drug use has risen faster than inflation, but drug use has also risen. Last year the UK government’s Home Office carried out their first ever evidence based study on this, and came to the conclusion there is no correlation between being tough on drugs and reducing drug abuse.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/30/punitive-drug-laws-are-failing-study
So we’re pumping money into something that has no effect whatsoever.
2. Some illegal drugs are very dangerous, but most are made far more dangerous by the very fact that they’re illegal. This is mostly because they are made by criminals. An example is ecstasy. Laboratory ecstasy is a remarkably safe drug. Street ecstasy, however, is made somewhat dangerous by the fact that dodgy people put all kinds of dodgy stuff in it, like the chemical PMMA. Ecstasy itself is responsible for at most 9% of the deaths reported in Ireland as ecstasy deaths, according to the Gardai. The vast majority are from the dodgy stuff, which wouldn’t be the case if ecstasy was legal.
Source: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ireland-has-third-highest-drug-related-fatalities-270148.html
Anne-Marie Cockburn lost her only child to dodgy ecstasy and now she campaigns to have it legalised, with the support of Leah Betts’ parents. Look her up.
3. The illegality of drugs makes bad guys rich. It’s the third biggest industry in the world, I believe.
4. Legalising drugs such as cannabis would reduce the consumption of the far more dangerous legal drug, alcohol, as they are substitute goods. I can’t find the source but Imperial College London estimated the reduction in alcohol consumption would be something like 30% (from memory, that figure might be a bit off… whatever it is it’s substantial). This would have enormous benefits to the health service.
5. Autonomy of body is a basic human right. Society created police forces to protect you from others, not from yourself. If not, then why not arrest everyone after they’ve had a McDonalds?
In conclusion, to quote Nick Clegg, if you’re anti-drugs, you should be pro-drug reform. Pretty much every organisation in Ireland that’s dedicated to reducing the harms of drugs, from Ana Liffey to Merchant’s Quay to CityWide, is in favour of changing our drug policy. Not everyone wants it changed because they want to get high. Like an awful lot of people in this country (we’ve the third highest drug death rate in Europe), I lost someone close to me through drugs. I’m convinced that this wouldn’t have happened if 1) he was more educated on what he was doing and more importantly 2) the actual drug wasn’t made by someone dodgy. Breaking the law doesn’t even enter the equation when someone decides whether they’ll do drugs or not. It’s behind closed doors 99% of the time – it can’t be policed. To think otherwise is laughable.
I’m literally sitting on a plane waiting to take off to go to Amsterdam for a smoking weekend. Having spoke to a good few people before the flight there is a a lot of people going for the same reason.
Imagine if Ireland legalised it, these planes of people would be coming here.
He would want to put some more green into that
We all remember when “legal” highs were legal,more people than before were using synthetic drugs. Once again, it would be very difficult to regulate the industry and in force shops to pay sufficent taxes.
People argue that pot it were legal everyone would just do that instead…
Frankly it’s an argument as full of holes as a piece of Swiss cheese.
I dont see the con of legalising weed… decriminalising shouldnt even be in question.
I’ve been around weed a long time the most unhealthy aspect is that you mix it with tobacco products. I think it could lead to a drop in tobacco sales which the government are taxing us to stop so win win
Look at the problem cheap alcohol availability is causing legalising any of these drugs would only make it worse its a stupid proposal from an out of touch minister and his party COP ON
Benny it’s the only time I heard of a minister not being out of touch
you think alcohol is cheap? how much money do you have??
Easily explained in legalising dope would mean that many women would look stupid coming out of Lidl or Aldi with 20 packets of cornflakes.
Ive been around weed a long time the most unhealthy aspect is that you mix it with tobacco if it were legal It could drop sales of tabocco which the government is taxing us stop anyway so win win
People have been under the influence in Ireland for generations, men with drink and women with tablets. Worst in Europe in both cases. The main reason — force to learn Irish and catholic religion. No coincidence.
Like a lot of other things we would be given an inch and take a mile.
1 pint limit. Drink 3-4. Take the chance.
Half ass a housing estate. Self regulation. Take the chance.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/united-nations-to-urge-governments-to-decriminalise-drugs-richard-bransons-claims-in-full-a6700371.html
The U.N. has a thought and we then have the same thought?
Much like same sex marriage there is no con to th legalising of particularly marijuana. It wont be in your local shop and if you oppose legalising it but drink alcohol, you are a hypocite
Right or wrong….it’s about time somebody had the balls to try something new.
It’s not a good idea – the social cost will be higher long term but those liberal eejits don’t calculate that in !!
Paradoxically drug use goes down with legalisation and even decriminalisation, especially amongst young people when the forbidden fruit aspect is gone. Criminal proceedings are vastly more expensive to the tax payer and do nothing towards rehabilitation for the problem users.
have your say