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PROVISIONS FOR MEDICALLY supervised injecting centres aren’t included in the latest proposed new drug laws that were brought to government this week.
Health minister Simon Harris brought a bill to government on Tuesday to do with making the possession of certain drugs illegal.
The Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill was originally brought forward by the last government and had been given the go-ahead in December before the Dáil was dissolved.
Contained in the original bill were provisions for the introduction of medically supervised injecting centres – where drug users would be able to go to take drugs watched over by trained healthcare professionals.
Then-drugs minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin was strongly in favour of the centres, and of moving from treating chronic drug use as a criminal issue to a medical one.
However, the proposed new laws brought to government on Tuesday make no mention of the medically supervised injecting centres, and instead focus solely on making the possession of certain drugs illegal.
Speaking in the Seanad on Wednesday in response to a question from Senator Lynn Ruane, Minister Harris said that the Drugs Bill had now been split into two.
This, the minister said, was to help gardaí to “respond to the situation in the north inner city” involving the recent drug and gangland crime.
The proposed new laws that Harris brought to government, which he said he hopes to have close to passing before the Oireachtas breaks for the summer, will make it illegal for people to possess a number of prescription drugs.
These include certain types of benzodiazepines and other prescription drugs like Z drugs. Anyone who has a valid prescription will be allowed to carry the drugs as normal.
As well as this, the new laws will make illegal the possession of certain drugs that have been in the media spotlight in recent months; these include the psychoactive substances N-Bomb (which was responsible for the death of an 18-year-old in January), and Clockwork Orange (which has been linked to deaths in the border counties).
“To be clear, the Government resolved to give the Garda whatever tools it felt it needed to respond to the situation in the north inner city and this was one tool [a] Garda asked to be put in its toolkit,” Harris said.
So what about the injecting centres?
Now a senator after losing his Dáil seat, Ó Ríordáin has hit out at the government’s failure to include provisions for the injecting centres in the new laws.
“There is absolutely no reason for this important legislation to be progressed through two separate bills,” the Labour politician said.
It is clear that Fine Gael ministers want to give the impression of action but want to delay any move that doesn’t fit with their ‘law and order’ approach to social problems.
“I don’t understand why they can’t pass all the legislation all in one go,” the former drugs minister told TheJournal.ie.
Why isn’t it ready? The Cabinet passed the heads of bill last December. It’s now May. The legislation was actually drafted by the Bar Council – it’s ready to go.
There’s consensus on the injecting centres… I don’t see the reason for separating the bill.
It appears that they want to do this part – the non-contentious part – of the bill and the other part they can long-finger off into the distance.
All the while you’ve people dying of drug overdoses in public places… all the time.
However, by its own account the government its still committed to bringing in the injecting rooms and to moving towards a health-led approach to tackling drug use.
The commitment in its Programme for Government reads:
We will support a health-led rather than criminal justice approach to drugs use including legislating for injection rooms.
On top of this, speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny reiterated the government’s commitment to bring forward laws to allow for the introduction of the centres in the autumn:
“Regarding the supervised injecting rooms, the Minister for Health expects to bring the relevant Bill before the House in autumn of this year,” Kenny said, in response to a question from Sinn Féin’s Jonathan O’Brien.
Government commitments
Harris also said in the Seanad that he was committed to introducing the injecting centres in the autumn.
“I reaffirm the Government’s commitment to doing this, which is a commitment in the programme for Government,” he said.
While the government has committed to the injecting centres, it is clear that any legislation allowing for them won’t be passed in this Dáil session.
No new laws have yet been passed by the current government. Ó Ríordáin said that it is unlikely that the government will focus on two separate drugs bills while so much other legislation needs to be passed.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said that the delay was because the laws were “quite complex”.
“This legislation is quite complex and it is not possible to proceed with it in this Dáil session,” the spokesperson said.
It will be the subject of a second Misuse of Drugs Bill which it is expected will be published in the autumn.
Tony Duffin, director of the Ana Liffey Drug Project which works with drug addicts in Dublin city centre, said that it was “very important” that laws allowing for medically supervised injecting centres pass through the Dáil.
“Having the legislation passed in terms of supervised injecting centres is an absolute priority,” said Duffin.
People have died recently whose lives would have been saved in a supervised centre. No one has ever died in an injection facility.
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More prohibition..yaaaay
Ah yes back to the same old sights in Dublin City were junkies are shooting up were & when they want , its unlike the Government to backtrack on there election manifesto !
Seriously though, where would you put the injection clinic? In residential or commercial areas, couldn’t imagine people being too happy if one suddenly appeared in their area.
Secondly, how were they going to make any new laws compatible with the Misuse of Drugs Act? Could Gardai, theoretically, stand outside the centre and just search junkies going in? Or would there be an exclusion zone around the centre where junkies have free reign to possess illegal drugs? You could just imagine Gardai chasing junkies and junkies trying to make in to the exclusion zones. Would dealers be allowed to set up a stall in the exclusion zone to sell their product?
Worked in the Wire…..and Switzerland…..but let’s not try anything.
If the gardai were serious about busting junkies with illegal drugs then they would simply post a couple of gardai on the beat (ha, as though that happens any more) down on Bachelor’s Walk, Tara St, Pearse St and Customs House Dock. They would haul 50-60 junkies in a couple of days. The reality is they have no interest in this. Junkies are shooting-up within 50 metres of Pearse and Store St garda stations. The injection centres would be treated no differently. The war on drug abuse has been lost. All they want to do now is try to get to the Mr Bigs and stem the supply flow.
Huge heroin problem in rural Ireland.
250 addicts on the methadone programme here in Waterford. The town is full of junkies.
Legalise the drug, put dealers out of business and you’ll have more Gardaí available to herd the junkies off the streets.
Why have the gardai no interest? It’s because they bring them to court and nothing happens ever. Why would they bother.
How could you legalise the drug, Stephen? Where would legal vendors source their product from then? Would the Government liaise with the cartels in South America to get a good deal? What about shipping it across the Atlantic, how could the Government guarantee that the shipment isn’t intercepted by an agency from another country?
Lol….they want to stem the flow of drugs from Mr Big…You would be surprised who makes money from this tax free lucrative business and the war on drugs is a fraud, it works exactly the way the establishment want it to work.
Absolutely, if the “Superpowers” wanted to end the war on drugs then they could do so in a very short space of time. Destroying the plantations would be easy using drones and the likes.
I’d imagine that there are too many people with influence on the take.
From what I understand, Ned, and I could be wrong, the injection centres were to come in in conjunction with legislation that would decriminalise the possession of drugs under a certain amount.
Why don’t we just allow everyone to carry what they like and we could put shoot-up centres in to the Brown Thomas café ! Jeez O’Riordan is a liberal clown.
Rather than spending precious resources mollycoddling drug-takers who intimidate citizens and drag the image of the city down;
How about we lift them off the street and lock them away and give them a choice- go through cold turkey or prison ?
How about we throw more dealers into prison with tougher sentences ?
How about we spend a some of the money O’Riordan wanted to waste and normalising drug-taking on whistleblowers and witness protection?
How about we tag /chip recidivist criminals and make their lives uncomfortable ?
You missed my point Dick. The gardai are not out to bust junkies. What’s in it for them? Busting the Mr Bigs of this world grabs the headlines, stalls the flow and makes it look like there is actually a ‘war on drugs’. We all know that’s not the case though. Drugs are here to stay. Education is where the battle should be.
No Sean, it’s the tolerance to drugs that’s the problem. Larry makes excellent points. Why give these junkies anymore leeway, why not tackle them and create legislating to detain them in detox centres. They are a scourge on the city, an eye sore and a crime wave. Why should we give respect to people who go around robbing people at syringe point etc.. the city centre is ruined because the bloody do gooders want a tolerance of low level crime, this just leads to bigger criminals and more crime
I think you should do a bit of research. Decriminalisation reduced crime, addiction rates, overdose rates, infection rates and drug abuse among 15-24 year olds in Portugal. Offering treatment as opposed to punishment is much cheaper and far more effective. I think we should go a step further, legalise all drugs ensuring their regulation and tax to the state rather than still allowing the dealers to run it.
Cholly, it simply doesn’t work. Plenty of countries around the world have “less tolerance” than Ireland. Multiple countries even have the death penalty for drug use/dealing and that doesn’t work either. Why do you think Ireland would be different?
@Adam Smythe
The Gardai and the politicians ignored the problem in the Pale for 30 years.
Everything was ok down the country..
It was bound to spread into rural Ireland..
Now it has.!
Seriously who cares?
There are far more important health issues for the government to deal with than catering to druggies.
I’d much rather the money went into the care of the elderly or psychiatric services.
Let the junkies fund their own centres.
Ye put de f***kin yoke smack bang in the middle of where its all happening! the city centre! needs to happen asap – in 20 years our government will stop trying to please the conservative catholic generation that still remain and start realising the contemporary times in which we live – Ireland can be Canada in 20 years. But the government needs to open its eyes and start tackling these issues now! along with the likes of cannabis legalisation.
It’s unbelievable that tax payers money would be wasted on centres to allow drug addicts to shoot up in comfort. Next thing we’ll be paying for their drugs too.
Government already does ,social welfare
actually, giving free heroin (just enough to keep the sickness away) wipes out crime and so much more amongst the small few addicted to the brown. it doesn’t cost much at all and before you try to suggest everybody will become a junky if there’s free heroin available I suggest you do some research on countries that have been doing this already for years with massive success rates in cutting down on heroin use accross all ages
Link please ?
Maybe the idea of injection centres was too good for this government to become true… What did I expect?
@Neil79 I am shocked that you even think such a thing “the government backtracking on their election manifesto” tut tut !!
Good points Ned
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