Is it time to consider legalising the provision, under controlled conditions, of heroin, cocaine, cannabis and other illegal drugs? I believe it is, writes Padraig O'Morain
Such a move would have three benefits. It would cut the ground from under the criminal gangs that are growing in ruthlessness with every year that passes; it would remove the need for drug abusers to engage in prostitution and other criminal activity to fund their habit; and in doing both of these things it would benefit society at large.
The sale of heroin, mainly to people from deprived areas, has underpinned a significant portion of gangland activity for decades now. Gang after gang has been broken up by the Garda but new gangs have replaced them. As the gangs grow in ruthlessness they care less who gets killed in the crossfire. How long will it be before they target judges, individual gardaí and others who we have, up to now, thought to be immune from such threats? Meanwhile, the growing middle class use of cocaine has added a new and affluent group of customers to the market. No wonder the gangsters are killing each other: business is booming.
Meanwhile, thousands of drug abusers pay a price that goes beyond money to feed their addiction. As we saw in the case of the recent murders in Ipswich, heroin addicts endanger themselves through prostitution; others engage in thieving, burglary and muggings. There are estimated to be almost 15,000 people in Ireland who are addicted to heroin. How many children does that make whose parents are unable to look after them in any meaningful way?
According to figures gathered by the Merchant's Quay Project, only about half the country's heroin users are in treatment at any one time. Providing heroin to these people would, it seems to me, increase the likelihood that they could be engaged with regularly by treatment services. At the very least it would reduce the necessity for them to engage in prostitution and other activities.
If you think there is something shocking about providing heroin free of charge, remember that we provide methadone free of charge to thousands of people and that methadone is an addictive drug.
Cocaine is often seen as a purely middle-class drug. There is little concern for bankers snorting cocaine in the toilets of upmarket nightclubs while blithely ignoring their contribution to the criminal fraternity. But cocaine is also increasingly to be found in deprived areas and indeed some people talk of an epidemic of cocaine use in these areas. On an anecdotal level, I have heard of suicides among young men taking a mixture of cocaine and steroids which, it appears, produces a crushing depression. The Merchant's Quay Project recently attributed a slight fall in the number of new heroin users coming to its service partly to the possibility that they were taking cocaine instead.
As for cannabis, the use of which is embedded in society, why are we gifting this business to gangsters? Former minister of state Eoin Ryan MEP has suggested that governments cannot legalise the sale of cannabis because the State may be sued at some future time by people whose health is damaged by the drug. I would be very surprised if that cannot be got around - we do not hear it, for instance, in relation to alcohol or cigarettes which kill far more people than any of the other drugs we are talking about.
But there are hard questions to be dealt with as well. Should the State supply heroin to a 15-year-old who has decided she wants to try it out? Would you allow cannabis to be sold in the corner shops? What if legalisation increases rather than reduces the use of "recreational" drugs? What if criminal gangs continued to profit from supplying cocaine to middle class users unlikely to register as addicts?
This is the sort of thing I believe needs to be looked at seriously by a commission charged with examining what might be a sensible policy in relation to legalisation and regulation of the supply of currently illegal drugs. If legalisation were to be introduced on a trial basis, such a commission could monitor the effects and make recommendations in the light of experience.
In many areas, illegal drugs are readily available to those who want to go out and get them. What is not as readily available is treatment. Tony Geoghegan of the Merchants Quay Project recently pointed out that there are fewer than 30 detoxification beds in a country with about 15,000 opiate addicts. If money saved on law enforcement and imprisonment was instead put into treatment and family support services in deprived areas, I believe we would get a quick, positive return.
Society could hope to see the criminal gangs seriously weakened and could also hope for a dramatic decline in the sort of petty crime people engage in to feed an illegal drug habit.
Let's not bury our heads in the sand on this one.
Pádraig Ó Móráin is a journalist and counsellor. Mary Raftery is on leave