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THE MINISTER OF State for the national drugs strategy has told an Oireachtas committee that a “war on drugs is not an effective response” to usage.
The Joint Committee on Health met this morning to hear from Minister of State Frank Feighan for an update on the national drugs strategy.
Ireland’s national drugs strategy was released in 2017 and the government said policies are now aimed towards a more health-led approach to drug use.
Feighan told the committee that the strategy commits to this approach “whereby drug use is treated as a public health issue and not primarily as a criminal justice matter”.
“And let me be clear: a war on drugs is not an effective response to drug use,” he said.
He also reiterated the strategic priorities for 2021-2025 under the plan including a focus on protecting children and young people from drug use, enhancing the access and delivery of community drug and alcohol services and a focus on harm reduction and integrated care pathways for high-risk drug users.
Feighan said that these priorities are to be linked to “outcome indicators” to measure the impacts such as figures on cannabis use among young people, the number of people receiving treatment and the number of drug-related deaths.
He told the committee that drugs continue to be a “major policy challenge” in Ireland.
According to Feighan, 9% of the population used an illegal drug in the last year. 9,700 cases were treated for problem drug use in 2020, with another 5,800 cases treated for problem alcohol use.
He paid tribute to frontline drug and alcohol services for their work during the pandemic. “The designation of drug services as essential services at the start of the pandemic was a significant acknowledgment by the government of the importance of this sector,” he said.
Feighan was joined at the committee by Jim Walsh, the principal officer in the drugs policy and social inclusion unit at the Department of Health and Dr Eamon Keenan, the national clinical lead for addiction in the HSE.
Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould asked the minister about the removal of a group of nurses specialising in addiction from the National Oversight Committee (OAC) on Drugs.
The Ireland Chapter of International Nurses Society on Addiction (IntNSA) served on the NOC until December when they were removed after Feighan’s decision to reconfigure the committee, resulting in their representative member being forced to step down.
Feighan said that he hopes to meet with the nurses in the next few days “to resolve the issues that have been raised in this regard”.
Gould also asked the minister if he could give a commitment that places on the NOC on Drugs will be retained for voluntary and community groups, as well as nurses, but Feighan did not give a commitment.
Citizens’ assembly
It was reported earlier this month that campaigners are increasingly confident that a citizens’ assembly on drug use could take place this year.
However, in response to a question from Social Democrats leader Róisín Shortall about when the assembly will take place, Feighan said there is currently no proposed date for it to begin.
He said it had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but confirmed that the Department of Health is liaising with the Department of an Taoiseach and said he expects it will take place “in the lifetime of this Government”.
The three coalition parties, upon entering government in 2020, committed to holding a citizens’ assembly on drug use, which advocates say could be a major opportunity to rethink drug policy in Ireland.
Shortall also raised the issue of nurses being removed from the NOC on Drugs, and asked Feighan if it is his intention to appoint an addiction nurse representative to it.
“I would certainly think yes, it is,” Feighan responded.
Lynn Ruane
During the course of the meeting, Feighan said there is currently “no desire at government level to decriminalise or legalise drugs, especially cannabis.”
Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan deemed cannabis a “gateway drug” during the meeting, stating that it is being given to children to create addiction and a market for drugs.
Following this, Independent Senator Lynn Ruane said the meeting had been “one of the most excruciating things I’ve ever had to listen to” regarding drug use and criticised the language being used, such as “the myth of gateway drugs” and “the moralisation of people’s drug use”.
“Minister, the war on drugs has happened right in front of your eyes today,” she said.
The war on drugs costs lives, it’s discriminatory, it’s moralistic, it’s a breach of civil rights, it criminalises poverty. If you want to focus on drug use, you need to forget the type of drug that’s being used and you need to look at poverty and marginalisation, everything that this government has got to say in to. Criminalise poverty, not people for their drug use.
She asked Feighan to define what he meant by “the war on drugs” not being an effective response to drug use and said the phrase is not about destigmatisation, but about criminalising those that use drugs.
She asked him if he thought drug users were criminals. He responded by saying that people who use drugs “have human rights” and reiterated that a health-led approach is needed instead of punishment.
Labour Senator Annie Hoey also said the minister needs to understand the difference between the decriminalisation and the legalisation of drug use.
Crack cocaine
Fine Gael’s Colm Burke raised the issue of the increase in crack cocaine use in the country. Feighan said he has announced €850,000 in recurring funding over the next three years for a HSE-led initiative to “reduce health-related harms associated with the use” of the drug.
On this point, Keenan said a student survey on drug use in higher education institutes will be released tomorrow that will show “a substantial increase in cocaine use in this population”.
“We’re going to be allocating about €50,000 of that for training so that across the country we can provide training for staff to deliver appropriate evidence based-interventions to people who are presenting with health problems associated with cocaine and crack cocaine,” Keenan said.
Feighan was also asked about funding for community healthcare organisations (CHOs), including the Tallaght Drugs and Alcohol Task Force, to support people in areas negatively affected by drugs.
A report published by the task force on the use of drugs in the Tallaght and Whitechurch areas of Dublin found that the number of people being treated for addiction issues in its projects has doubled in the last ten years, but it still believes it is only reaching 25% of the true need.
It said that community services in the areas are at “breaking point” and urgently need additional resources.
The task force report called for an additional €1 million in government funding each year to cover more staff, resources for alcohol support programmes, a detached youth work project, and expanding crack cocaine programmes.
However, Feighan said between €200,000 and €240,000 in funding will be allocated to the nine CHOs every year, who will then commission community-based drug and alcohol services based on an assessment of population needs.
With reporting from Jane Moore.
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All I could see was boobs.
What was that idiot pilot thinking?????????????? You don’t drop your jumpers and dive into them!!! That moron should have his licence confiscated.
maybe there was a mechanical problem with the plane?
Looked like the plane was crashing to me
Nope, no mechanical problem. It’s actually quite common to see. Usually the pilot stays well clear and makes for a nice addition to a photo in the background. You’ll notice that the Tandem Master was expecting the plane.
This pair are lucky to be alive. There was a similar incident a couple of years ago in Brazil where the plane hit the tandem pair and killed them. The pilot survived. I actually jumped the same plane that was in the accident. Brazil was pretty wild west when it came to skydiving. That incident is on liveleak (safe for work, no snuff).
This incident was in Thailand I believe (if I recognize the DZ correctly). They’re a relatively new operation. I’d say either the pilot made a serious error in judgement or the skydivers were sliding around the sky a lot (unlikely looking at the footage).
100 other things could have gone wrong in this incident other than a bridal tear. They were incredibly lucky there was no damage to the reserve. The passenger had no idea what was going on but the TI was super aware throughout. He definitely saved their lives.
The skydiving forums (of which there’s really only one) have lit up over this incident. The IAA or the FAA would have heads rolling had this been in Ireland or the US.
This was in Pattaya, Thailand. Also, if you look, you can see THAI (army?) written under the wing.
Thai health and safety standards are dirt poor. Which is why I would never skydive there. This vid confirms those feelings.
You know why that guy was able to right them & continue down safely?
He’s got the biggest balls in history. That’s why.
What would The Journal do without Reddit?
I do not look at Reddit wasting hours looking at rubbish so it is great that this site brings us the highlights and unmissable stuff like this.
Spare a thought for the journalists who have to spend their day in there. Some fierce dark places in Reddit.
new underpants please
Another good reason not to go leaping out of planes for no good reason.
What plane ??? Boobies yes
Anyone for a fresh nappy?
On a wing and a prayer! Doh!
Is the Journal just going to post YouTube videos now?
“Now”?
New underwear please.
and then straight to pennys for new boxers.
“CLOSE SHAVES” = 128 Reduced 1+2+8 = 11
58008 upside down on a calculator = BOOBS !!!!!!!
‘Priest’ has 6 letters, same number as ‘Letter’. Letters are posted in a ‘box’ which has three letters, the same as ‘sin’.
Priests have been found to have committed sin. A sin is a crime against ‘God’ which is ‘Dog’ backwards.
I had a dog called ‘Hank’, which rhymes with ‘wank’…which rhymes with Frank.
TAD-AAAAA!
If a washing machine?
Think about that for a minute Frank.
It’s now clear that Frank is a troll. Good work, Frank – you had a lot of people fooled for ages on here.
Oh. My. God.
‘Frank’ and ‘troll’ have the same number of letters!
How could we all have been so blind?!!
and the first thing he says when he lands is “How’s your legs” ???
OMG!!!!!!!
Welcome to the Stevie Wonder flying school.
Fcuk it… No one died ! I’ve lost count of the amount of times a car, bus or train have zipped past 3 feet away from me … I’m still strong enough to leave the house
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