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ADDICTION DOES NOT discriminate. It does not favour a gender, age, or geography. There are few families, towns or counties that have escaped the scourge of addiction.
There are many faces of addiction. We still have many challenges when discussing tobacco, alcohol and food addiction but thankfully, these conversations have begun.
However, when we discuss drug addiction, we fail to see past the labels. We paint a picture of addiction, which fails to recognise it is an illness which is relentless in its pursuit and ignorant of its prey.
We create stereotypes through our loose language compounding the isolation felt by the most vulnerable in our society.
And it must stop. I have spent the past two weeks visiting facilities such as Merchant’s Quay and Saol and met incredible staff and service users.
When I visited Saol, I heard directly from women battling addiction. I listened, we sang, we laughed and cried.
Their experiences were raw and powerful, but their determination and bravery were inspiring. I think particularly of one woman whose path led to prison. She told me about the many obstacles she has faced in battling addiction.
In spite of all, she spent her time in prison studying and went on to attend UCD as a student. She refused to let her illness define her future, despite many people framing the narrative for her.
While in Merchant’s Quay, I met a formidable woman called Mags. She has been working in Merchants Quay for 26 years. She describes the difference between the stereotypes we hear and read about and the people who sit in front of her every day.
Before a crowd, many appear macho or strong but behind her closed door, their vulnerability appears.
Mags challenged me to walk a day in her shoes, to meet the men, women, children and families living with addiction – a challenge I am willing to accept.
Throughout the many conversations I have had, it is clear the barriers erected by society are the most painful for people living with addiction to shoulder.
Many discussed relapsing when they failed to find employment or adequate housing, or their attempts to stop but being surrounded by drug use.
They spoke of obstacles faced when accessing health services and the cavalier attitude of some medical professionals towards their illness.
But every single person I met felt society had abandoned them. It is clear we – all of us – are failing to tackle the scourge of addiction.
Government’s role
The government must and will shoulder its responsibilities in this area. We are progressing our Housing First policy. Housing First provides immediate access housing without preconditions.
It is a client-led service, delivered by a team providing intensive supports. Once the person is housed, a range of other health and social supports are provided, including harm reduction treatment services.
We must establish a Supervised Injection Facility. Despite what its critics suggest, this is not legitimising drug use. It is acknowledging that drug use is occurring on our streets, often in broad daylight in front of our children.
The Supervised Injection Facility will provide a safe and medically supervised facility for people to inject. It will result in fewer deaths and provide a safe place for people to use drugs.
We are also changing the law to ensure a health-led approach to people found in possession of drugs. This will mean on the first occasion, An Garda Síochána will refer people, on a mandatory basis, to the Health Service Executive for a health screening and brief intervention.
On the second occasion, An Garda Síochána would have discretion to issue an Adult Caution. Drug use will still be a crime but we will, for the first time, offer people help rather than handcuffs.
We must also remove barriers to education, health and employment. The government will respond to that challenge.
But I strongly believe society must respond too. We must put our prejudices aside and respond with compassion.
We must stop pretending drug addiction is something that cannot affect you or I. We must push ourselves out of our comfort zone, rid ourselves of ignorance and face up to the challenge that faces us.
We cannot banish our friends, neighbours, colleagues or relatives to the shadows.In addressing this issue, we too must acknowledge drug addiction goes beyond the person battling the illness.
It affects their family, their friends and their community. Nobody is immune from its clutches.
Nobody wants to be dependent on drugs, but I also know it is an illness than can happen to anyone. I also believe people can recover with the right help and assistance.
I won’t shirk from this responsibility and I know society will not either.
Simon Harris is the Minister for Health
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Would the Minister be in favour of a centre in close proximity to his house or child’s school?
@moneymaid: If there are already addicts on the streets in close proximity to his house or child’s school then the answer is YES.
How is this difficult to grasp?
People are already on the streets, along the Liffey, on O’Connell Street etc. etc. etc. taking drugs and injecting .
Surely having a location THERE that they can go to would both stop it happening on the streets, along the Liffey, on O’Connell Street etc. etc. etc. whilst also allowing those same people to access assistance in hopefully improving their lives and the lives of their family and friends.
To just ignore it and hope it’ll go away on it’s own is a far worse suggestion.
@moneymaid:
Injection centres do not supply drugs.
The addicts buy the drugs from criminals.
How is this not supporting criminal activity?
@MJF Consultants – business advisers:
The injection centres proposed by Minister Harris and Fine Gael will be structured as “bring your own drugs” centres.
The addicts will have to get their drugs somewhere. They will buy them from criminals. WHERE?
Drug dealers will sell drugs to the addicts outside the injection centres, or down the road or around the corner or on the next block or on the board walk or in the luas on the way there.
Minister Harris and Fine Gael refuse to accept that their injection centres will bring drugs, drug dealers and criminal activity to the communities in which they will be located.
@Michael Flynn: Every SINGLE thing you’ve described is already happening. Drug Dealers already go where the addicts are (most of them are addicts themselves). Drug Dealers already sell Users drugs “down the road or around the corner or on the next block or on the board walk or in the luas on the way there.”
Have you got a single proposal that would help or are you just determined to do absolutely nothing?
@Michael Flynn: it’s a funny spin you put on it haha but unfortunately for you injection centres have been proven to work and we need some badly
@Bob Earner:
I thought the solution was so obvious that I did not want to insult anyone’s intelligence by stating it.
@Bob Earner:
Give them the drugs in the injection centres as part of a structured peer reviewed program to help them rediscover a drug free life.
@Kevin Finnegan:
Reality is a spin. Ha ha.
Yes, we need them so let’s do them right and not have criminals profiting from a process funded by the taxpayers and operated by an arm of the state. And let’s do it quickly. Lives are on the line.
Simon’s seat is in jeopardy in Wicklow so he pays for a party political article on the journal.
The anti-social behaviour and open drug dealing within yards of Merchant’s Quay Ireland’s premises on the corner beside the Dublin City Council Civic Offices is already beyond the ability for members of An Gardaí Síochána to control.
The decision by Merchant’s Quay Ireland’s to apply for planning permission contravenes both the Dublin City Development Plan and common sense. Furthermore, it shows contempt for the residents, workers and visitors to the area. Many of who have taken the time trouble and expense to make their fears clear in written submissions to the Planning Authorities.
The site is 50 yards from St Audoen’s School. Simons Harris’s and other lawmakers primary responsibility should be the safety of the 200 kids attending that school and secondly the vulnerable older adults living in the small terraced houses next to the school. Instead gangsters are allowed to intimidate and harass both residents and workers of the area with impunity. If the premises were an off-licence that allowed its client to consume alcohol within one hundred yards of it, the premises would be forced to close.
This problem will only get worse if allowed at this most unsuitable site. https://calgarysun.com/news/local-news/calgary-police-chief-says-drug-addicts-dealers-have-migrated-to-beltline-safe-consumption-site
@Mary’s Abbey: Wouldn’t providing a centre for addicts to GO reduce the behaviour you claim to be so worried about?
You use a Christian symbol as your avatar and yet you always have THE most UnChristian opinions.
Those addicts are people too ya know. Many of whom would like to change their life (their families would certainly probably hope they can) but here you are complaining about something that could actually make a difference with your false concern “won’t someone think of the children”.
@Mary’s Abbey: “If the premises were an off-licence that allowed its client to consume alcohol within one hundred yards of it,” the premises would be a pub.
@Mary’s Abbey:
Crucial wording in your post is the Gardai not being able to control the dealing and what goes with it. That can be said about prohibition worldwide for the past century. The fact that 100 years of prohibition hasn’t gotten drugs off the streets should not be ignored anymore. It’s time for reform. It’s gotten rather silly at this stage. If you don’t learn after 100 years?!!
@Tom Gleeson: Before making flippant comments know something about the subject, about which you are commenting.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2003/act/31/section/17/enacted/en/html
@Nollaig Elliot: That argument for the legislation of cannabis has failed because of the increasing level of psychosis caused by the strength of artificially produced skunk. Some believe the paranoia induced by smoking skunk is the root cause of the massive volume of stabbings in London.
@Mary’s Abbey:
Yes Mary, “some believe”, and some don’t. It’s the same with most mind altering substances. Some people just should’t have them. Would you say most people who drink are alcoholics? I doubt it. The number of people who use cannabis and the number of people who develop psychosis from it, are worlds apart.
@Bob Earner: Anyone can virtue signal if it makes you feel morally superior, enjoy it.
@Mary’s Abbey: You obviously don’t know london very well. The massive volume of stabbings is related to gang culture and mix of cultures within London. All trying to control prohibited drugs. All trying to be tough mean and women in front of their peers all living in areas destroyed by the induce gang culture created by prohibition, same as every other prohibition has created.
@Bob Earner: Having had a family member pull a student out of a school in the city center because of the incredible amount of drug users and sellers they walked past every day and listened as one acquaintance after another started heroin, due to a target rich environment of kids, put those areas next to your kid’s school first, Bob.
My issue with injection centres is that you are in essence helping people partake in an illegal activity.
I’m not in favour of decriminalisation but surely the government should decriminalise if they are to set up these centres? Otherwise you’re simply encouraging and helping people to break the law?
@Dec: BS.
That’s just your excuse for trying to be contrary.
You’re willing to use the excuse of “helping people partake in an illegal activity” so you can ignore the fact that these centres save people’s lives
@Bob Earner: and the aiding of illegal drug use will cost lives as well, hardly a few days pass now and it’s shooting after shooting, I’m afraid it’s a double edged sword.
@DERRY1973: That is happening ANYWAY.
This bury your head in the sand and don’t try anything at all is the worst kind of cowardice!
@DERRY1973: legalisation of some drugs with huge investment in treatment and addiction services is the way to go
@Kevin Finnegan:
Correct. And the best way too. Where it is implemented, it is working.
@DERRY1973:
The crime, the shootings and gang related violence is a major consequence of prohibition. A conservative, outdated and failed strategy on drug and addiction policy.
@Bob Earner: this has nothing to do with cowardice, and more to do with taking on the drug cartel with major investment in police resources, or legalise drug use “within reason” and remove this business from the dealers, collect tax and build what ever center you want. Incase you don’t realise Bob the shootings aren’t happening for the fun of it.
@Kevin Finnegan: that’s my thinking 2
@Dec: injection centres should provide the drugs and needles for registered addicts, making dealing in the neighbourhood of the centres unviable (because addicts can get the same for free) and driving it to middle class areas of “social” users who would not dream of self-identifying as addicts. A further step would be to make dealing in the area of the centre a separate offence subject to additional penalties. Really, it seems like a no-brainer that you dont provide a free forum for the sale and consumption of illegal drugs. Either fully commit to the notion that drug addiction needs to be treated as a health and well-being issue, or dont bother doing with half arsed solutions.
He sounds so compassionate until you remember how he treats those with a legal addiction, there’s no warm fuzzy sentiment for those his government is screwing over for tax and leaving them in some cases to rot and die. Call me cynical but calling it health care rather than criminality on paper saves the government even more money, he says it all in the article, the path to sobriety, injection centres, legalisation, jobs bridge. Of course these are all great ideas on paper but as we all know there’s a very big difference between a future vision and government incompetence. To be honest minister I’d be more impressed if you could start trying to fix the hospital crisis, it’s only been years, now that would make an excellent article!
What planet is he on. Increase mandatory sentencing for those selling it to 20 yrs. The bigger the haul the bigger the sentence. Does he not realise that if there was no supply we would not have a drug problem
@Dave Barrett:
Do you believe that a mandatory 20 year sentence for dealing will mean no more illegal drugs on the streets?
“Does he not realise that if there was no supply we would not have a drug problem” – right………. cos that “war on drugs” has worked SO WELL…….
Let’s just keep doing the exact same thing that hasn’t worked, maybe this time it will.
You should look up the definition of insanity.
@Dave Barrett: Longer suspended sentences… they still wouldn’t be able to access help, though.
As a local resident to merchants quay. Why dont the gardai do anything about the open drug dealing on the corner of merchants quay and Dcc offices.
The area along the quays is like the projects in the wire.
The local school next door to me strongly objects because they feel the area will be abaddoned by the gardai if the injection center is opened.
@oisin: They should crack down on dealing and they also should focus on harm reduction measures like safe injection facilities. It’s not an either/or proposition at all.
@Páiste de an Pangur Bán: Druggies are criminals full stop. That is the way society thinks and feels, if people disagree then they are in the minority, the minority shouldn’t control what the majority wants as that is anti democratic. Too many goody two shoes ones want their way rather than respecting the wishes of people who are concerned and fearful. Anyone who disagrees is acting like a bully?
Your right on the money there minister Harris society won’t shirk its responsibilities to improve its health and care and sooner we rid of you our responsibility will be shirked for the better
What…….refer them to HSE for a health screening…….now minister you probably don’t know this but the HSE is in uproar with an inability to provide services to those already trying to avail of screening so unless you are going to provide extra resources and clear the present backlogs then you are talking complete nonsense….. never mind your inability to place centres in appropriate settings……seriously deluded
We’ve tried the stick. It’s about time we give the carrot a go. Especially with all the evidence showing it gets better results for society as a whole.
@darrenphughes: the stick has not been used in a long time.
Plenty of room for an injection centre on the front lawn of Leinster House.
Great city centre location and allows politicians to demonstrate their commitment to this problem.
No. drug centres just ruin an area and make the locals scared, they bring crime into the area. Also no one forced them to take drugs, many people have worse lives than they have and they don’t take drugs.
Gardaí should be able to arrest people around these centres for having drugs, all these centers say is that the war on drugs is lost and we couldn’t be bothered anymore. So the gangsters still end up selling their drugs and that will keep the drug wars going and those gangsters happy…
@TamuMassif2019: and where do you think the gangs and gangster culture came from. Look to the root of the problem not the result.
Minister, you’re an idiotic hypocrite, if you and this incompetent government are serious about tackling the ongoing crisis which is drug addiction, you lot need to allocate adequate resources to all relevant bodies to tackle our communities scourge of drug dealing and that includes the Gardaí. We need more guards, more resources, not just your long winded soundbites or empty promises!
Aw look at Simon using his Communion photo
Need big investment in detox. Addicts should be able to walk in off street, and get detox that day.
Addicts in prison should be detoxed. Put them in the midlands for a couple of months.
(Cops in Dublin should bust the courier kids cycling fast on footpaths up one way streets, D7, etc.)
Typical anti-progressive NIMBY bollox on here, wouldn’t be like us in Ireland. Harris is trying to make drug addiction a public health issue rather than a criminal one, and supervised injection is one of many steps along the way to creating a system that actually tackles the issue – but as always the comment section is always full of individuals too short sighted to understand any of this.
We’ve had a system in place since the dawn of the state that only treats drug addiction as a criminal issue, an issue that gets worse and worse every week – and people are baying for more of it while simultaneously wanting things to improve. How do they expect that to work?
Here’s a thought. Let Harris try something different and not end up with the same half baked pile of shite that will be the metro, because that’s what the public get their mits on it – and thus nothing will change.
Portugal is the blueprint for success. Emulate it ruthlessly.
@UKL: please advise your grans address so the first can go next to it. Honest to God, it’s like we have to try as hard as we can to put our kids and elderly in danger. Dentist across from mam was annihilated looking for drugs only last week. Pharmacy nearby the week prior. Stop putting plasters on symptoms, not causes and putting vulnerable people in danger of being targeted by uncontrolled elements.
They absolutely do.
have your say