An expert group has submitted its report on changing the State’s response to drug possession. The Cabinet is due to discuss proposals based on the report tomorrow. Security Correspondent Cormac O’Keeffe has obtained a copy and examines its findings.
The benefit of having senior public servants and other authorities examine significant legal changes is that it should be well informed, with access to expertise and insight. It should also have the plus that its recommendations are practical, implementable, and grounded in law.
The downside is a lack of street knowledge and the absence of the voice of those communities hardest hit by the drugs trade. The other possible risk is a lack of vision and an in-built conservative streak that will, by its nature, be more comfortable with incremental, not radical, change.
Whether those features apply to the State group tasked with examining Ireland’s laws on the possession of drugs for personal use is difficult to know for certain. The group’s 88-page main report, which the Irish Examiner has obtained, has assembled and teased out information and legal concerns not previously aired in the decriminalisation debate before its establishment.
Source: Cormac O'Keeffe, Irish Examiner, 24th July 2019
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