Fianna Fail has defended its proposal to decriminalise the possession of cannabis as Labour accused the party of being “all over the shop” on the issue.
Minister of State James Browne, Jim O’Callaghan and Fiona O’Loughlin launched Fianna Fail policies on tackling crime, pledging to recruit 5,000 new gardai over five years, build 1,100 prison places and give gardai the power to remove face masks at protests.
The party was asked about its pledge to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use, which it later clarified referred to cannabis following criticism from Fine Gael.
Labour’s Duncan Smith said that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have been “all over the shop” on drug decriminalisation and accused them of not understanding the issue.
He also said they had got it “totally wrong” and were “detached from the reality”, adding that the decriminalisation of the user was a “key issue” for Labour in government.
Speaking on Friday, Mr Browne said that people with an addiction should be approached with “compassion” and diverted to health-led and educational training programmes.
When asked why this approach was taken only to those in possession of cannabis and not other drugs, Mr Browne said: “I think that’s the approach we have to take initially and see how that works in practice.”
Mr Browne said it was “a complex situation that interacts with crime and with health” and said the party wants to go “even tougher” on organised crime and those who are pushing drugs on young people.
When asked why the party did not specify that they did not state in the manifesto that the drug they would decriminalise was cannabis, he said: “You don’t have every single little line in a manifesto”.
He said he disagreed that it was a big omission.
Asked about where the health-led approach to drugs was in relation to people addicted to heroin or crack cocaine, Mr Browne said “the health approach would be still there available to them”.
When it was put to him that they would still be criminalised, Mr Browne said “this is a significant departure for Ireland and I think you cannot rush into this type of approach”.
“I think we need to take a sensible approach to it, a common sense approach as to how you will assess it at each step of the way,” he said.
Asked whether decriminalising cannabis would help those struggling the most with drug addiction, he said: “I think if you talk to any mental health expert, they will tell you that cannabis is a very serious drug, and you look at the mental health impact it has on people triggering paranoid schizophrenia and other issues.
“It is a serious drug and I think part of the problem is that people who are taking cannabis are not taking it seriously.
“Both as a criminal barrister and as a TD in the community, I have seen very, really serious impacts of cannabis use.”
When asked whether the serious effects of cannabis misuse would be similar to alcohol, Mr Browne said it was “apples and oranges” because alcohol is legal.
He said: “The country has decided that alcohol is a lawful substance, they have made that distinction.”
He added: “I’m knocking on an average of 1,000 doors a day in urban and rural Ireland every single day, this issue has not come up on a single door.
“So I think this has really become a bit of a bubble issue up here in Dublin.
“We’re very clear in our manifesto. We’re clarifying in relation to what that policy means for Fianna Fail. We always do that in any manifesto.
“Our manifesto is out there and it’s out there for scrutiny. We’re still waiting for Fine Gael to produce their manifesto, and it’s the same with Sinn Fein as well. I suspect the Fine Gael one is still being written.”
The Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use recommended that legislation be introduced to “minimise, or potentially completely remove” criminal convictions and jail terms for those in possession of illicit drugs for personal use.
A majority of members of the Citizens’ Assembly voted to take a different approach for each drug, with a vote on whether to legalise cannabis getting one vote less than a “comprehensive health-led” approach.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use in October called for the departments of health and justice to research how a regulated drug market could operate in Ireland, beginning with cannabis.
Of the more than 4,700 people in the prison population in Ireland, over 70% have some form of drug addiction.