From next year there will be supervised injection rooms opened for drug users in Dublin, with the scheme to be rolled out to Cork, Galway and Limerick at a later date.
Aodhán O’Riordáin, Minister in charge of the National Drug Strategies, has announced the move during a speech at the London School of Economics today, and said he hopes the centres will be open early in 2016.
It is the first stage in an overall plan to move policy away from the “war on drugs” model of recent decades, and take an approach closer to those used in nations such as Portugal, where drug addiction is treated more as a medical issue rather than a criminal one.
Speaking at the London School of Economics earlier today, Mr O’Riordáin said he is in favour of decriminalisation of drugs, with an evidence based approach driving drugs policy in Ireland in the future.
“When it comes to drugs we like to blame the victim ... what are sick people doing in a courtroom if they need medical help?,” he said.
The Minister has said the heads of a new Misuse of Drugs Bill are being drawn up and will “unlock” the legislative blocks to opening injection rooms.
He told the IDEAS International Drug Policy Project forum in London: “The war on drugs is a convenient lie for those who want to stay in a safe space of argument.
“It’s not about decriminalising particular substances, it’s about decriminalising the individual.”
The move has atrtractd widespread support from charities dealing with issues around drug addiction.
As @AodhanORiordain announces supervised injection rooms in Ireland, here's the argument for them in a nutshell pic.twitter.com/06aVu7IOEM
— TransformDrugPolicy (@TransformDrugs) November 2, 2015
“I am firmly of the view that there needs to be a cultural shift in how we regard substance misuse if we are to break this cycle and make a serious attempt to tackle drug and alcohol addiction,” Mr O Riordáin told the Irish Times.
“These are clinically controlled environments which aim to engage hard-to-reach populations of drug users, including homeless drug users who would otherwise take drugs in the open, creating risks to themselves and the public,” he added.
The centres are not to be a “free-for-all” for drug users, the Minister said, and will be clinically controlled environments aimed at taking drug use of the streets and providing a link to a hard to reach group of addicts.
The policy of decriminalisation, and categorizing drug use as a health issue rather than a justice issue, was adopted in Portugal in 2001.
Research found that while drug use did not fall, cases of HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and deaths all dropped.
