Introduction
Drug use is one of the most complex and troubling issues we face today. Drugs have ravaged some of Ireland’s poorest communities and led to pain and suffering across society. Gang violence and deaths in urban areas are mostly as a direct consequence of drug deals. Far too many young people get caught up in drug related crime and risk beatings and/or prison or even death. For these reasons, amongst others, any change in drug policy must be sensitive to the effects on poorer communities – but the policy has to change.
Criminalising drug users is a failed approach. People Before Profit favours a healthcare approach to drug taking and education rather than criminalisation. That said, we do not favour large corporations taking control of the newly legal drugs market in the way that tobacco and alcohol companies have done.
Our policy would involve careful regulation, banning promotion of drug use by commercial bodies and ensuring good quality information is available for users and good quality health services are available for those who have health problems related to drug use, including prescription drugs.
People take drugs for a variety of reasons: social and recreational, health, addiction, stimulation, sex, fitness and exercise and even for religious reasons e.g. wine at a Christian mass. It is a fact of life in Ireland that many adults consume, often in large amounts, tea, coffee, cigarettes, sugar, alcohol and painkillers during an average week for example. However, certain drugs – particularly crack cocaine and heroin – are strongly correlated with poverty and social disadvantage. Any effective drugs policy needs to tackle the material causes of these forms of drug taking instead or targeting vulnerable drug users with criminalisation.