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LAST UPDATE | 2 Jul 2024
THERE IS AN “appetite” in Ireland for alternatives to coercive sanctions in drug possession cases, according to a report launched by the Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy today.
Speaking at the launch of the report on Drug Use and Current Alternatives to Coercive Sanctions in Ireland, Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy Colm Burke told The Journal that the Department of Health is working towards a health-led approach on the area of drug use.
The new report on alternative responses to imprisonment, known as ACSs, has said Ireland is “at the precipice” of “transforming how its justice system responds to drug use in a more effective and humane way”.
The report was conducted by a UK-based charity called the Centre for Justice Innovation and is based on a survey and interviews with practitioners or managers from a number of organisations with a role in responding to drug use.
It identifies nine existing services that fall under five categories defined by a European Commission study on alternatives to coercive sanctions:
Other types of responses that the European Commission had identified elsewhere in the European Union include suspension of investigations or court proceedings with a treatment element; probation, community work or restriction of liberty with a treatment element; and intermittent custody/release or parole/early release with a treatment element.
In a statement marking the release of the report, Burke said that drug use is a “serious health issue with long-term implications not just for the person who uses illicit drugs, but for their family and the community around them”.
“This report shows the enthusiasm for a health-led response, one which diverts people away from courts and prisons and instead towards effective programmes that support their rehabilitation and reduce their likelihood of reoffending,” Burke said.
“As Minister with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, I fully committed to ensuring that we move forward with a health-led approach that reduces harms and provides measurable benefits to the lives of everyone affected by the misuse of drugs.”
The new report said that funding for drug treatment services that interact with the criminal justice system is stable and available across a wide range of areas in Ireland.
However, some services, like the Dublin Drug Treatment Court, rely on multiple sources of resources rather than on central funding, while the Cork Court Referral Programme relies on fining individuals to pay for court workers.
Another problem is that “organisational memories within the sector have faded significantly since Covid”, according to the report.
Knowledge of system-wide interventions and alternative to coercive sanctions have reduced. This has led to fewer people engaging with services such as Dublin Drug Treatment Court.
Some new stakeholders lack training and knowledge about alternatives.
Despite the challenges, interviewees from the organisations felt there is a promising environment for change in Ireland’s use of alternatives to coercive sanctions in the wake of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use.
“This environment has provided Ireland with a unique opportunity to expand ACSs and particularly the availability of pre and point-of-arrest diversion,” the report notes.
“Despite challenges that may arise from cultural hesitancy, and the task of adapting systems to enable data sharing and evaluation for this model, the potential for change in the current framework of opportunities is hugely promising.”
Speaking this morning at the launch of the report, Burke said that it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on the findings of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use, as it currently before an Oireachtas Committee.
The Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use provided 36 recommendations. On June 13, the Oireachtas Committee held its first public meeting. The committee is to provide a “reasoned response to all 36 recommendations made by the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use within a seven-month time frame”.
Chair of the citizens’ assembly, Paul Reid, spoke before the committee and said that he believes the two-volume report is “the most thorough and far-reaching examination of drug use undertaken in the history of the State”.
“The citizens’ assembly recommendations support specific measures for implementation including, for example, a decriminalised model, pivoting from a reliance on a criminal justice response to a comprehensive health-led response. We have described this as an Irish model for the Irish problem of illicit drug use,” he said.
Burke, who was appointed to the role in April by Taoiseach Simon Harris, spoke of now-retired Judge Olann Kelleher’s work in Cork, where he spearheaded a diversion initiative in which 189 young people avoided a drugs conviction for possession of cocaine by taking part in an educational programme, as well as paying a small fine that was directed towards funding the programme.
Last week, The Journal reported that numbers in Irish prisons surpassed 5,000 for the first time ever. The minister said that initiatives like that of Judge Kelleher’s, in intervening with people who face addiction issues before they face criminal convictions is important, but also assisting those after leaving prison.
“This is what Judge Olann Kelleher has done, the difference is if he imposed one conviction on one of those people, the likelihood is that the person will be back in a second and third time which would eventually lead to an imprisonment term,” he said.
“But it’s about also helping people within prison. The problem is not about when they’re in prison, it’s the follow-up after they leave prison. Who is their contact?”
Where do they access that healthcare when they leave prison? A lot are actually people who don’t have any fixed place to go when they leave, and I think that’s one of the issues that we need to be conscious of as well.”
Chair of SIG-5 and CEO of Ana Liffey Drug Project, Tony Duffin, presented the report this morning alongside Director of Services at Ana Liffey Drug Project Dawn Russell, Head of Services at Coolmine TC Lisa Larkin, Senior Innovative Practice Officer at the Centre for Justice Innovation Jason Kew, and Research Officer at the Centre for Justice Innovation Carla McDonald-Heffernan.
With additional reporting by Emma Hickey.
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People take drugs. Reality. Legalise and tax. Take it out of the hands of criminals
@Marc Power: You mean like the black market cigarettes?
@Marc Power: Fair enough.
But also remove the excuse in court to lower the sentence, if whatever done under under the influence.
Same of course for other, already legal drugs.
@Marc Power: practically guaranteed the person who murdered the tourist in dublin 9 days ago has a severe poly drug dependency. What ever it takes, we need to be getting people off drugs, it brings nothing but misery and death
@Marc Power well, people are itiods.
@Thomas Sheridan: there will always be a black market.. its about harm reduction.. no solution is perfect but we should try to minimise harm from drugs.. decriminalisation legalisation regulation are steps towards that goal..
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Good luck with that. The addiction services are criminally underfunded. The 8% pay increase that section 39 staff, many of which are addiction service providers still has not been implemented 9 months after being promised. Many people who provide those services are leaving the sector as a result.
There is no appetite from the judiciary to treat addiction as a medical issue as it’s far less profitable than treating it as a criminal one. They must keep that revolving door of substance-related criminal offences moving to bolster those bank accounts. The war on drugs has been a disaster since its inception and a new way of addressing the problem is badly needed.
@Marc Power: While I agree in spirit and most definitely when it comes to cannabis, is there any way of legalising cocaine that’s ethical? It was a bit simpler years ago as it was hash, acid, E’s etc. I think you can make a case for all of those but cocaine is THE problem drug now in Ireland. How would you source it without paying into one of the most violent and bloody businesses in the world?
@Dr. Oisin Maccumhaill: I hear you, and that’s why there needs to be change in this regard
@Marc Power: taking it out of the hands of criminals will push them into other crimes, and probably more dangerous drugs. They’re not going to accept a redundancy package.
Just decriminalise possession of small amounts of drugs and half of your prisoners will be out
@Kieran Ferrett: nobody is in prison for procession of drugs
@SYaxJ2Ts: Very true. The only people who are in prison for drug possession charges are those who also have a string of other more serious charges that they are serving the time for, usually violent offences. We are not a country that imprisons people willy nilly. In fact, the bar is set very high. It’s par for the course to see criminals slaps on the wrists with wrap sheets pages long of violent offences.
One of the consequences of ffg pawning out a piece of everything to the private sector for over 100 years, Is when best practice says its not working, Vested interests fight dirty to insure nothing changes , onless if course compensation is guaranteed.
Legalise them and you have no idea what social disaster will this bring to Ireland. Literally no idea, people only think at themselves not at the big picture. In 5-10 years Ireland will become one of the most violent countries in this world, in same league with Haiti and Ecuador. Needles to say, will def be the poorest country in Europe due to flocking of decent people and their hard working families (Irish and non Irish) to outside Ireland. Remember this.
@Chris: strange that all the evidence completely goes against this your comment.. the European Drug Agency had stated there is no relation between legalisation and increased usage.. your head is stuck in the eighties.. we’ve nearly the worst over dose record in Europe .. people like yourself with that mentality are often far removed from the problem we currently have with drugs..
@Stiles: in other countries, but not in Ireland, unfortunately. Legalisation will flood the usage because of the mentality of people.
@Chris: Ireland would be an exception based on what? A feeling you have about the mentality of the entire Irish population? Stiles is right imo and the data is there to support this
@Darth O’Leary: we are already an exception in terms of street harassment, street fights, thugs only, but only looking to harm ordinary people. No other European big city has this particular problem.
3rd oireachtas committee to arrive at same conclusions as the committee and assembly before it.. regulation and legislation is the only way forward… decriminalisation is a small step towards that.. but it will help.. FFG can’t ignore this forever bunch of coffin dodging dinosaurs.. get with it.. people are dying due to their ignorance …
There is an appetite for change. If you can afford the drugs, you can afford the fine that comes with it when you’re caught. That’s a you problem not an us problem.
Decriminalisation of cocaine and other hard drugs is never happening. A scourge on humanity and must be eliminated.
That’s not to say more needs to be done to address the addiction issue associated with long term drug use. We do need to do more.
There’s no chemical solution to a spiritual problem. The country doesn’t have a drug problem, it has a spiritual problem. You just have to identify and eliminate the sin in what you are doing.
@Séamas Mac Cárthaigh: yeah often religion helps people recover.. but one as dedicated as yourself must agree that criminalising people who have taken the wrong path is not the answer… again, it’s not about promoting drug use it’s about helping those who are vulnerable.. no matter the drug.
There is so much confusion on this issue. Illicit drugs are not one thing. Heroin is different from methamphetamine. Both are very different from cannabis, MDMA and psychedelics – chemically, in terms of their effects, dependence potential, harms associated with them, etc. And that’s an objective fact. These have been well studied over the past 30 years. The legal regime should be based on scientific evidence of associated harms at individual substances, which should either be fully legalised and sold in a regulated way or fully illegal. Decriminalizing possession is pointless and you still have all the harms of an illegal market.
Drugs are a product of continuous depression
This is only an example if drug is legalised. You can’t compare smoking cigarettes and elicit drugs the way some people compare them. I don’t want the drug addict to drive the bus that I’m taking, no taxi or to operate any moving machine on the road. You can only catch them if there’s spot checks or sadly when accidents happen and to find out that they under the influence like alcohol. A person under the influence can’t connect their thinking into actions. The result is always a disaster.
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