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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
October-November 2025 25
2019 Working Group
In 2019, the government’s Working Group on
Drug Use delivered two conflicting reports.
After considering more than 20,000 public
submissions, the majority recommended a
health-led approach centring on adult cautions
not charges, and diversion to health services
not the courts. Chair Garrett Sheehan
dissented to these findings, claiming that
“very little weight should be attached to the
research commissioned by the Department of
Health” and warning against liberalisation.
The government opted for a compromise close
to Sheehan’s position. In practice, the adult
caution scheme for drugs was rarely applied
by gardaí, and the diversion scheme,
announced with some fanfare, was never
implemented. Sheehan was later appointed
chair of the Standards in Public Office
Commission.
2022 Justice Committee
The Oireachtas Justice Committee’s report, ‘An
Examination of the Present Approach to
Sanctions for Possession of Certain Amounts
of Drugs for Personal Use’, went further. It
recommended decriminalisation of possession
of small amounts of drugs and urged
government to consider regulation of natural
substances such as cannabis and psilocybin.
The Citizens’ Assembly,
stage-managed
In 2020 coalition talks, the fresh Greens
secured a promise of a Citizens’ Assembly on
drug use. Their election pledge had been to
push for cannabis reform, but Fianna Fáil and
Fine Gael blocked this with various
shenanigans including elevating conservatives
to key positions.
The Assembly’s terms of reference were
narrowed from “illicit drug use” to “problematic
illicit drug use”, excluding most actual
experiences of drug users. This caused uproar
among addiction experts and campaigners,
who accused the government of skewing the
process.
The Assembly, chaired by mild-mannered
but government-friendly former HSE chief Paul
Reid, began in April 2023 with 99 citizens and
concluded in October. Over 800 submissions
were received, though many were ruled “out of
scope” due to the narrowed mandate.
Members heard evidence on four models:
prohibition, depenalisation, decriminalisation,
and legalisation/regulation.
Confusion dogged the process. The “status
quo” option was presented as the 2017–25
strategy (adult caution and diversion), though
there had been a notable failure of
implementation of these schemes.
Later, “decriminalisation” was weirdly
renamed “comprehensive health-led
approach”, blurring distinctions. Some
members complained that the Assembly’s
voting system was poorly explained, with one
calling the process “managed to a
predetermined outcome”.
Assistant Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly,
who has recently ascended to Commissioner,
warned that decriminalisation would
undermine Garda stop-and-search powers,
echoing a 2014 Garda Inspectorate report that
found such powers were often used for general
intelligence gathering. Critics described this
as “saying the quiet part out loud”.
Despite the flaws, the Assembly
overwhelmingly rejected the status quo. It
made 36 recommendations, including:
• A shift to a health-led model.
•
Decriminalisation of possession for personal
use.
•
Expansion of harm reduction, treatment,
and education.
Legalisation of cannabis lost by a single
vote.
The Assembly was clear in rejecting the
failed caution and diversion schemes. Yet, as
soon as it ended, media coverage blurred the
lines, with prohibition plus diversion
repackaged as a “health-led approach”.
2024 Oireachtas Committee
In June 2024, the Joint Committee on Drugs Use
convened to examine the Assembly’s
recommendations. Paul Reid pressed for
urgent reform but confused terms, referring to
Drug policy, 2019–2025
Progressivism reverts
to regressivism; but
mainly inertia
By Cormc O’Loughlin
“decriminalisation” when describing
depenalisation. The distinction is crucial:
depenalisation reduces penalties while
keeping prohibition; decriminalisation
removes criminal status altogether.
Many witnesses were explicit: criminal
sanctions deter people from seeking help. The
Committee’s interim report backed both the
Assembly and the 2022 Justice Committee,
recommending repeal of section 3 of the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 to enable real
decriminalisation. Reid was later appointed
chair of An Coimisiún Pleanála.
There’s a pattern: opposing
decriminalisation sets Ireland’s public
servants on the route to the stars.
2024 election
The Committee’s work was cut short by the
general election. Its interim report nonetheless
shaped debate. The main parties diverged:
•
Fianna Fáil veered chaotically—first
promising cannabis legalisation, then full
decriminalisation, then cannabis-only
decriminalisation.
•
Fine Gael rejected reform, with Simon Harris
insisting: “I don’t think the public want to
make drugs legal”. This contradicted polling
and the Assembly’s outcome. Fine Gael
made decriminalisation a red-line issue in
government formation, blocking change.
The new government recommitted to the
2019 strategy of adult cautions and diversion
— schemes that remained either underused or
unimplemented.
2025 Strategy Review
In 2025, the Department of Health
commissioned Grant Thornton to review the
National Drugs Strategy. The review softened
language and diluted commitments. Where
the original strategy promised representation
for “people who use drugs”, this became
“service users”, sidelining the majority of drug
users. Where earlier drafts acknowledged
stigma from criminalisation and policing, the
review reduced this to vague language about
“low levels of trust”.
But the message between the lines was
unchanged (because it is the truth): the threat
of criminal sanction still deters people from
getting treatment.
Conclusion
From 2019 to 2025, Ireland has had a Working
Group, a Justice Committee, a Citizens’
Assembly, another Oireachtas Committee, and
even a general election fought partly on the
issue.
For six years, the government and its allies
have stalled, frustrated, and ignored every
process — only to bring us back to where we
started, the substance of the unimplemented,
majority 2019 plan (but with little extra
implementation). Craven, really.
NEWS
