Ireland will seek to decriminalize the use of drugs like cocaine and heroin, a minister announced Monday.
The country's minister for drugs strategy, Aodhan O Riordain, said a major shake-up to drugs policy, including the introduction of supervised injection rooms, could take place as early as next year.
“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,” he said, according to the Irish Times.
Speaking at the London School of Economics, he explained the proposed changes would be part of a “radical cultural shift” aimed at treating – rather than punishing – Irish with drug issues.
“Research has shown that the use of supervised injecting centers is associated with self-reported reductions in injecting risk behaviors,” he said.
The measures could also include the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use, such as cannabis, heroin and cocaine.
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The move comes just months after an international commission issued a report calling for the decriminalization and regulation of “as many illegal drugs as is possible,” to borrow the words of the commission member and chair of the study, former Brazilian President Henrique Cardoso.
The report, put out by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, goes farther than a previous 2011 release by the same commission in the wake of the 40th anniversary of then President Richard Nixon's declaration of a “war on drugs.” Even at that point, the commission still dubbed the four decade long “war” as largely a “failure” and one worth “abandoning,” though stopped short of calling for decriminalization beyond marijuana. This latest report however, specifically mentions decriminalizing the coca leaf and several other currently illegal drugs.
According to Jag Davies, the spokesperson for the Drug Policy Alliance, Latin American leadership was a significant factor behind the evolution of the commission towards favoring decriminalization of all drugs. “Historically, Western Europe has been a leader in drug policy reform, but Latin America has caught up and led the way in terms of political debate,” Davies told teleSUR at the time.
