A leading addiction specialist has said giving drug users criminal records is “pretty futile”, after an Oireachtas Committee recommended decriminalisation for personal use.
The Joint Committee on Drugs Use has urged the Government to introduce legislation that would Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, having concluded that decriminalisation would not lead to an increase in consumption.
TDs and Senators said any change should apply to all drugs, rather than a select number - such as cannabis.
On The Claire Byrne Show, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCD Colin O'Gara said he strongly supports moves to change the Misuse of Drugs Act.
“Essentially, decriminalisation takes away the idea that if you suffer from an addiction, primarily that you're going to be treated as a criminal,” he explained.
“So, up to this point, if you're caught in possession of drugs, you would go down a criminal route.
“The proposal here from the committee is that you would be put into a health system as opposed to a criminal system.”
Professor O’Gara added that decriminalisation would mean a “huge change in terms of stigma”.
“A lot of our patients who attend here to see me, for instance, in the outpatient setting do not want to come into hospital because of the stigma,” he said.
“We've got a massive issue in terms of access to services; some of the figures, for instance, are that only one in 10 people with the more rare forms of addiction will actually attend for treatment because of stigma.
“One of the key issues in terms of driving stigma is saying to a person when they're at their lowest ebb, in addition to being an addict, you're also a criminal - and I think that has to stop.”
Professor O’Gara continued that giving people a criminal record for drug use is a “pretty futile” way to reduce drug use.
“Really, when people are using [drugs], are you going to give somebody a criminal record, for instance, for the future?” he asked.
“They're not going to be able to travel because they have been using drugs at this particular time.
“Often I do see people in that situation and I think that's pretty futile, actually.
“So, I think we need to look at other mechanisms.”
Main image: Drug use. Picture by: Alamy.com.
