Success of new Govt drugs strategy hinges on results

Following years of preparation and consultation, the launch of the latest National Drugs Strategy today should have brought clarity.

A draft version of the plan had been released eight months ago, community drug and alcohol taskforces had been vocal in their views, Gardaí had begun a pilot project and all angles appeared to be covered.

The minister with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor, who has undoubtedly put huge time and effort into the plan, was asked how it would work.

There was particular interest in the response of gardaí who discover a small amount of drugs on a person because it involves a referral to HSE services.

It is a model that was proposed through the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use – the work of which formed an initial basis for the strategy launched today.

Under the plan, anyone caught by gardaí with a small amount of drugs for personal use for the first time, can be referred to health services, avoiding prosecution.

Pressed on how it would work, Ms Murnane O'Connor said gardaí would need to decide the next course of action once they find someone in possession.

'No training other than a five-page document'

Although a pilot scheme allowing gardaí to divert people to health services has been under way since September, the Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon told reporters today there had been no training other than a five-page document which he called "a directive".

Mr Gannon described it as "a once-off garda referral scheme" where discretion entirely rested upon "a single garda".

He said there was nothing to explain to gardaí the "enormity" of their decision, the treatment options that may or may not be available or the trauma that may have led a person to self-medicate.

Ms Murnane O’Connor said gardaí would be trained how to refer to the HSE.

Although the pilot scheme has only been operating since 1 September, Ms Murnane O’Connor had not checked in with An Garda Síochána for a steer on how it was working. It was too early in the process, she told reporters.

She said she would speak to the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan and others after it has had time to bed in.

For those seeking further information, An Garda Síochána’s website explains that the drugs strategy is about reducing harm and supporting recovery which is a health led response.

While the language and intention echoes the latest strategy, it relates to the previous drugs strategy, which ended last year.

Considering the health-led approach taken by the Government, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was also at the launch.

Asked how the HSE would manage the demand on its services, she said the HSE had never been so strongly funded, with an additional 5,000 people recruited in the last year.

Therefore, any "assertion" that the HSE would be under pressure in the context of the Government’s drugs strategy was not accepted by Ms Carroll MacNeill.

"There are regions that have overspent their budgets and there are those that have not - that’s a different thing."

The Government allocated €7m in Budget 2027 to the national drugs strategy but some addiction services require more than double that figure to fund their work annually.

Most receive money from the HSE, but a large percentage of funds are gathered through fundraising. Therefore, the €7m allocation towards a drugs strategy is viewed as miniscule.

Over on the Dáil plinth, Mr Gannon, who chaired the Joint Committee on Drugs Use that concluded that personal possession of drugs should cease to be treated as a criminal matter, reiterated the need for decriminalisation.

Back at the Government press centre, Ms Murnane O’Connor firmly batted the suggestion away repeating the Government’s priority to a health-led approach.

Ultimately, the Government wants to end Ireland’s growing problem of drug use across all strata of society.

The real test will be implementation and whether communities see tangible results.