The Republic Ireland isn’t generally seen as a radical country; under a strong influence of Catholicism, Ireland is traditionally known for its socially conservative values, but recently something has shifted. Last month the Minister of Ireland's National Drugs Strategy, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, announced revolutionary new plans to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs.
In recent years, the decriminalization of cannabis has happened with more and more frequency, but Ireland has gone one step further. Believing that a “cultural shift” is needed to properly tackle addiction, Irish officials plan to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of heroin and cocaine and will soon roll out ‘injecting rooms’ where users can inject under hygienic, supervised conditions.
These radical new measures are part of a bid to erode the persistent and damaging stigma of addiction. The Irish officials leading this charge are part of a growing group who believe that drug abuse should not be dealt with by the criminal justice system, but should be treated as a health issue. Rather than disciplining and disgracing addicts, help and understanding should be offered instead, as Ó Ríordáin explained:
“I am firmly of the view that there needs to be a cultural shift in how we regard substance misuse if we are to make a serious attempt to tackle drug and alcohol addiction. Too often those with drug problems suffer from stigma, due to a lack of understanding or public education about the nature of addiction. This stigma can be compounded for those who end up with a criminal record due to possession of drugs for their own use.”
The strict drugs laws employed by countless countries across the world – most a result of the failed War on Drugs – have, in most cases, done more harm than good and have only universally succeeded in perpetuating the stigma of addiction. Ó Ríordáin believes that dehumanizing addicts and writing them off as just ‘junkies’ is enormously damaging, and a little compassion goes a long way in tackling the problem.
This thought process is of course not alien to the USA; just last month President Obama spoke out against America’s approach to drugs, criticizing its focus on drug supply and yet apparent apathy when it comes to dealing with treatment and prevention: “One of my goals when I came into office was to restore a sense of balance when it came to drugs, illegal and legal. For a long time, treatment was a second-class citizen to interdiction and arrest.”
That America’s War on Drugs has failed is rarely disputed, and it is precisely this heavy truth which has become the catalyst for many people in this country to consider a more open-minded approach. Clearly, there has to be some kind of shift in this country, because the inescapable fact is that the USA is in the midst of a serious drug problem.
Prescription drug abuse is out of control. The number of Americans who died as a result of abusing prescription pain relief drugs quadrupled in the years between 1999 and 2010, a staggering escalation. Heroin use has almost doubled in just over seven years; in 2013, half a million Americans disclosed they’d used heroin in the past year and, subsequently, heroin-related deaths have tripled.
There are many in the US who will be watching how the effects of the Irish decriminalization play out. As Ó Ríordáin took pains to stress, decriminalization is not the same as legalization; selling and distributing drugs will remain an offense, but the people using the drugs would not be the ones targeted and punished. The focus will instead be on tackling the drug manufacturers, traffickers and dealers.
How this unfolds in Ireland will be of great interest to both sides of the drug decriminalization debate here in the USA. While the evidence to suggest that supervised drug injection rooms are on the whole beneficial is strong (Europe has multiple injecting rooms, most of which have gone through meticulous appraisals), there are still many who say injecting rooms will be morally and socially disastrous. Ó Ríordáin, however, believes this is just another manifestation of the prejudicial stigma of addiction:
“What the debate about safer injecting rooms is really about is, 'We really don't like these people, they are a sub-species, less than human, we should just sweep them away and it will all be better,'. If you are a citizen of the Republic, you should be treated as a citizen of the Republic. If you have illness, society needs to treat you."
Whether or not Ó Ríordáin is correct about this, opponents of injecting rooms and decriminalization cannot always be dismissed as biased or judgmental. Bob Jenkins is a former heroin addict who is against decriminalizing heroin and cocaine – although he is for decriminalizing cannabis.
“I understand what Ireland is trying to do with these new laws,” Jenkins states, “But the problem is, people keep referring to the recently relaxed cannabis laws to prove their point that this stance works. I can’t stress enough that the two are totally different and cannot be treated the same. It’s one thing to turn a blind eye to pot, but heroin? I really do think decriminalizing heroin sends out entirely the wrong message to our kids. On paper, it minimizes the risk, and that could be catastrophic.”
Jenkins also believes that injecting rooms are a worrying idea: “Heroin is the worst drug. It’s the worst of the worst. The idea of the state handing it out to users seems nonsensical. I’m not saying our method over here in the US in any better – I think it’s proven that our approach doesn’t work. But I’m hopeful there can be another solution – one that doesn’t treat addicts like criminals and lock them up and throw away the key – but one that also doesn’t enable.
“I’m hopeful that there can be a middle ground. Maybe these drug law changes will work in Ireland, and if they do I think we need to look at that and learn from it when it comes to our own drug policies. But for now, I think we can definitely learn from just the ideas behind these changes. If we start implementing these ideologies into our society, we could be surprised at the amount of progress that is made.
One thing Jenkins can firmly agree with Ó Ríordáin’s on is the idea that “Addiction is not a choice, it’s a healthcare issue.” Alcoholics are not treated as criminals, and neither should addicts be. The War on Drugs has left devastation in its wake – that tells us it’s crucial to approach our drug problem in a more constructive and sensitive way.