Cocaine And Heroin Could Very Soon Be Legal In Ireland

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Ireland has moved towards the decriminalisation of certain drugs, including cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

The ‘radical cultural shift’ was announced on Monday, as Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the minister in charge of Ireland’s National Drugs Strategy, also told a lecture at the London School of Economics that from next year drug users will be able to inject in special rooms around Dublin.

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According to The Independent the minister said they should be changing their attitude to drugs, so they’re helping addicts rather than shaming them, but he also emphasised there was a big difference between legalisation and decriminalisation.

Dealers would still be considered criminals – as it would remain a crime to profit from the sale and distribution of illegal drugs – but drug takers would stop being criminalised for their addiction.

Mr Ó Ríordáin told the Irish Times:

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.

Adding, there’s a “strong consensus that drugs across the board should be decriminalised”.

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His comments come in the wake of a leaked report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which appeared to be calling for worldwide decriminalisation.

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According to the BBC the report was withdrawn after at least one nation put pressure on the UN to bury the findings.

In regards to the ‘injection rooms’, Mr Ó Ríordáin said they would be ‘clinically controlled environments’, whose purpose is to prevent individuals who are already vulnerable from putting themselves at further risk.

He added: “Research has shown that the use of supervised injecting centres is associated with self-reported reductions in injecting risk behaviours.”