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A FORMER ASSISTANT Garda Commissioner has called for the decriminalisation of people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs.
The current approach to drug policy in Ireland is criminalising young people and minimising their life chances, Jack Nolan, who retired from the force last year, told a town hall-style meeting on the issue last night.
The meeting, at the Wood Quay venue in Dublin city centre, was organised by the Ana Liffey Drug Project to coincide with the start of a public consultation on whether our current laws need to change.
Nolan, who at the time of his retirement was heading up policing in the Dublin Metropolitan Region and who now sits on Ana Liffey’s board, said the area of drug decriminalisation was a complex one and that there were no “silver bullet” solutions.
It was now 41 years since the introduction of the Misuse of Drugs Act, he said, observing that he had served in the gardaí for 40 of those years “and I don’t think there was any meeting or any planning session I went to where drugs or drug use or the sale or supply of drugs was not mentioned”.
“I have been involved in operations, directed operations, managed operations – and I suppose at the end of that 41 years it’s hard to say there are less drugs available in this country.”
“That is something that we must consider very, very closely – why are drugs so easily available?”
Drugs, he said, were widely available at our schools, at music festivals and at pubs all over the country – adding that the global drug trade was worth around €500 billion a year.
“That is a frightening phenomenon,” Nolan said.
“So the world’s response has always been law enforcement and then secondary has been the rehabilitation, the treatment and the welfare model.”
Said Nolan:
“Our young people are criminalised. Our young people are deprived of life chances. 360 odd die of overdoses - that’s more than three times the number of people who die on the roads.
“And yet we’re here in a small town hall meeting discussing this issue. This is a bigger issue for Irish society than possibly is commonly perceived.
“But the size of the issue should not be underestimated. Because once the debate starts on decriminalising drugs the debate will start on ‘soft on drugs, soft on crime’ and then watch what happens in the wider political and social space.”
The former garda, who spoke toward the end of the meeting, told the crowd:
Decriminalising drugs is a major challenge. I am more interested in decriminalising the person caught with small amounts of drugs or using drugs because if we decriminalise that person we don’t minimise their life chances and we give them opportunities that today are not as readily available.
Open to change
Other speakers at the meeting spoke of the need for people who had been hit with criminal penalties for lower-scale drug offences to tell their stories as part of the campaign to change the legal approach.
Dublin GAA star Philly McMahon, who has made a series of media appearances over recent years supporting the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use, spoke about his brother John who died from a drug overdose in London in 2012.
“Everything I do around drug addiction is in his name and for his legacy. I try to keep his name alive and certainly help others that maybe don’t have the supports that he could have done with when he was alive.”
McMahon told the meeting:
I don’t think as Irish people we can use the excuse any more that we’re afraid of change. We’ve seen in the last two referendums that we are open to change.
Contributors from the audience also made comparisons with the successful Yes campaigns in the marriage equality and abortion referendums – and highlighted the need for people affected by the issue to tell their stories.
Marcus Keane, head of policy with Ana Liffey, agreed it was “really important to hear the damage that criminalisation has on people on a day to day basis – that it is a real impact, it’s not some intangible thing that happens to other people”.
Said Keane:
“I think there was 16,000 incidences of possession recorded last year – more than one every hour. Every single one of those is a potential criminalisation situation and for every single one of those people who are criminalised it does have real and lasting sequela in their lives: they cannot go to the States, they might have difficulty travelling, they might have difficulty getting jobs.
It’s a real barrier – so those stories are really important.
‘Politicians can surprise you’
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the Labour senator and former drugs minister, said campaigners would have to make a particular effort to explain what decriminalisation means – as many voters assume it essentially amounts to legalisation.
Referencing the momentum that built up behind the campaign to remove the Eighth Amendment, he said in response to points made by other speakers that “the political system, when they’re asked to genuinely address an issue, they can actually surprise you”.
It is currently a criminal offence for anyone to possess illegal drugs in Ireland. Anyone found to be in possession of prohibited narcotics can be prosecuted before the courts and potentially receive a criminal conviction.
The government last year launched its National Drugs Strategy, titled Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery. The strategy explicitly supports moving towards a “health-led response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland”.
In November of last year, junior minister with responsibility for the strategy Catherine Byrne set up a working group to consider alternative approaches to the possession of drugs for personal use.
The consultation asking for the public’s views on the matter has now been launched in the form of an online questionnaire.
Decriminalisation
Decriminalisation is defined by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) as when the status of a criminal offence is reclassified as non-criminal. Although possession of illegal drugs would remain prohibited and be addressed by police, it would not be treated as a criminal offence.
The approach has already been adopted by other countries. Portugal decriminalised the use of illegal drugs in 2001, a move which experts have said has led to a ”spectacular” reduction in the number of infections among intravenous users and a significant drop in drug-related crimes.
A law that became active in 2001 did not legalise drug use, but forced users caught with banned substances to appear in front of special addiction panels rather than in a criminal court.
A report published by the Oireachtas Justice Committee outlined that, while it might be suggested that such programmes could add to the cost of healthcare, the experience in Portugal has “actually resulted in a reduction in costs to the State”.
That cross-party panel also recommended in 2015 that the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs be decriminalised.
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He’s right of course.
@Tweed Cap: It will sadly just be more of the bla bla bla.. “We should do something about this”.
Nobody in power will come out and say something like this. It is always AFTER they leave public office the truth comes out. The truth is the war on drugs has and always will fail.
Then again I don’t blame them.
Look at what happened to the UK Government drug adviser David Nutt.
Told them the truth, got fired.
My motto is and always has been. Its my bloody body and I will do with it as I please.
Do not tell me what I can and can not do with it.
@Brian Henoll: Don’t throw it off the top of a building and on to a busy street below. That could really ruin other people’s day
@Brian Henoll: But the current Minister is also saying this. Not only the former one.
@Brian Henoll: Could they hold a referendum the same as the abortion one,women claimed it was their body and it was their right to do what they pleased with it,the same seems to be your argument,but it would be defeated because you are a man
There is no single move by government to fight crime then taking the money out of the drug trade. A plant that will grow wild in any garden is worth literally thousands of euros under the current regime of prohibition. Time to make a change and take the money away from criminals stop making criminals out of good citizens.
Yeah, lock up a teen for a 50 or 1′er bag and he’s unemployable for life. No point trying to go straight then. It creates career crims.
@Gav Quinn: How about the teen not buying the drugs in the first place?
@Ennui Kenny: Insightful
@Ennui Kenny: Please name one instance in the entire human history where saying “dont use drugs”, “dont sell your body for monetary gain” or “be faithful to your spouse” has ever worked.
@Ennui Kenny: No, people like to experiment when growing up. Its a big part of life, saying they shouldn’t take it in the first place as an excuse not to legislate for decriminalisation is ridiculous.
@Termaz Fx: Those instances might not have worked but don’t come to me with a sob story if you get caught.
@Mark McDermott: Experimenting is fine but whining on about getting caught carrying out an illegal act is what is really ridiculous. I’d love to do a lot of illegal things that wouldn’t impact on anyone else but I can’t do them because it’s against the law. It’s fairly simple, if you don’t want a criminal conviction don’t break the law.
@Ennui Kenny: Should everybody be punished long-term for nonviolent mistakes they made when they were young?
That system is just cruel.
@ihcalaM: I’m not a 100% on the spent convictions Act but I think that after 7 years your conviction disappears off your sheet with the exception of a few offences. The thing is that if an employer sees a drunk and disorderly conviction and you explain that you got a bit sloshed one night on a stag do and got arrested then most employers will just brush it off. If on the other hand you are convicted of buying or possessing illegal substances they may not be so forgiving especially if the position that you are going for is one of trust.
If you are under 18 the conviction becomes spent when you attain the age of 18 so long as you don’t have any further convictions. Getting into other countries is a matter for those countries as they are not covered by Irish Law.
It has been proven that the more someone is criminalised because of drug use, the more likely they are to live a life of poverty because of the lack of opportunity that accompanies the criminalisation. This places people in a place of hopelessness, which can then lead to life long drug abuse and other types of criminal behaviour. Mr Nolan is presenting a sensible approach to drugs. Let’s face it, our de facto War on Drugs has been and is an abject failure, on both a human and economic level. Time to listen to Mr Nolan and use a new approach.
@Ron O’Keefe: fair play to Mr Nolan,why didn’t he highlight this suggestion when he was in a position of power. I totally agree it’s a futile exercise locking up drug addicts. Concentrate on the suppliers maximum sentences
@Matt Humphries: In fairness, given the culture we are seeing within the Garda HQ, I think we can forgive Mr. Nolan for not publicly going against the policies being enforced by his superiors. He’d only be smeared as a “kiddie fiddler”
just from what I am hearing at the disclosures inquiry there seemed to be an existing amnesty from prosecution for some of his own colleagues .
Take a few minutes to fill out the survey in the link contained in the article. This has to start somewhere and every little helps. We’ve made some changes in this country recently and anyone with a brain knows that the current situation is ridiculous.
He must be looking for a career in politics or probably looking to get a job on some state board, why come out and speak about this issue now, did he ever make his thoughts known while he was an assistant commissioner, outside of all of that I do agree it’s time society changes it’s approach.
In Amsterdam, possession of 5 grams or less of cannabis is not enforced per order of the city mayor.
Other towns and cities in Netherlands seem to follow the same rule to maintain consistency across the nation.
Harder drugs are harder enforced, as they want to make it less attractive to try the harder stuff, and it seems to work down there.
The question is: will it work here?
In United Kingdom, possession of smaller quantities of class c drugs for own use incur a “street caution” for first time offenders and do not go on national criminal databases unless repeat offences have occurred.
Maybe that’s a better solution?
@Finn H. Schoyen: Yeah. But in Amsterdam, gangsters still make all the big money off weed. Legalising is the way to go.
@Finn H. Schoyen: it shouldn’t be an offence to carry and consume 5g of weed though. It’s no use compromising with cautions because it’s still telling people they’re not “allowed” avail of a beautiful, amazing and completely natural plant. Our bodies come with built-in cannabinoid receptors for a reason. We were literally built to consume that plant but, because someone decided they didn’t approve, everyone had to stop. Beyond ridiculous.
@Joe Phillips: In fairness Joe, that’s not a great argument.
Our body has opioid receptors too, perfectly able to conjure up a response to heroin, that doesn’t mean the stuff is a-OK.
Cannabis should be decriminalised/legalised I agree – but arguing using the “it’s natural” fallacy will get us nowhere.
If you cheat on your spouse which ends up in divorce, kids growing up in broken homes, ex partners going through therapy from the trauma – its all hunky dory, apparently no damage done neither to a person, nor to the society.
But god forbid someone smokes a joint – lock him up and throw out the key. Because reasons.
Why is it a criminal offense to change YOUR state of mind?
What is so criminal and/or evil about it?
The survey takes 5min, take the time to fill it in!
If we accept everything that’s said, and there’s no reason not to, then this issue isn’t black and white and certainly much bigger than just decriminalising posession of small amounts of ‘soft’ drugs and thinking that’s solved the problem. It hasn’t.
He made it clear that drug’s have permeated every aspect of Irish society, from schools to pubs and the trade is worth a fortune. It won’t go away and has grown over the years. It’s responsible for a huge number of overdoses and, let’s be honest here, it also goes hand in glove with organised crime which itself is responsible for, if not all, then a large amount of the rapid rise in violent we’ve witnessed in recent years.
So what can we do about it? Just decriminalising posession of a small amount of all drugs seems like an abdication of responsibility to me, a little like saying “we can’t win, so why bother fighting?” There’s an arguement to be made for perhaps decriminalising posession of cannabis or marijuana but I think heroin or cocaine would be a different story, then there’s so many synthetic drugs that it becomes extremely difficult to police them.
Another small but vital aspect Nolan touched upon was that, whatever about our law enforcements approach to drugs, the rest of world considers this primary to rehabilitation, whereas we have so little drug treatment and rehabilitation in this country that, realistically, there is only one approach, that of law enforcement. I can’t help but wonder if we’re going to do what we usually have a tendency to do, put the cart before the horse, pass laws with the promise of future investment in drug treatment centres and rehabilitation facilities. All well meaning, that will never see the light of day, just look at how long it took the only drug injection facility ot get up and running. Everyone agreed it was needed, everyone agreed about every aspect, except where it should be or who should run it.
It is the garda people to court bringing for 20 euro worth of drugs ,just to get a conviction,and then the judges demanding 200 euros fine but will suspend the conviction if the fine is paid before,noon that day, who in their right mind would have 200 euro at that hour of the morning,prevention rather than conviction for such a small amount
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