Senator Martin Conway: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, to the House on this important issue. We all know that families the length and breadth of the country have been impacted by the drugs crisis. This crisis is impacting on counties, cities, towns, parishes, villages, streets and street corners and young, middle-aged and even older people. It is an epidemic, which Governments throughout the world are struggling to come to terms with. It is important to acknowledge the work of Europol in recent days and the astronomical success it had seizing so much cocaine. Unfortunately, that is on the tip of the iceberg; drugs are all over Europe and the world. This country is no different.

Traditionally, people who were caught with illegal substances were dealt with through the justice system. Slowly but surely, we are seeing a health-led approach, rightly so. When I was member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice I visited Portugal to see how the Portuguese were dealing with people who had an addiction to drugs and also those caught with drugs on a first offence. They adopted a health-led approach. They put a suite of services around these people, such as addiction counselling, health services and various supports. It was remarkably successful in helping to encourage people off drugs. The system that pertained in this country was a legalistic approach whereby people who were caught with drugs received a conviction. Convictions did not become spent and this could become an issue for anyone trying to go to America or other countries a few years later.

I am glad to say the mindset in this country is moving towards taking a health-led approach. That is largely due to the work the justice committee did under the leadership of its former Chair, Deputy Stanton. The report the committee commissioned was ground-breaking and challenged the system at the time. It was supported by a suite of NGOs that believed the same thing. The problem is the prevalence of drugs in our society and how to deal with it in a more fundamental way. I welcome the proposal to set up a citizens' assembly to engage with citizens from all backgrounds and none on how to frame future policy on drugs. This will probably be the most important citizens' assembly done during the lifetime of this Government. I struggle to understand why there were citizens' assemblies on biodiversity and having an elected mayor of Dublin ahead of a citizens' assembly on drugs.

Drugs destroy lives; the Lord Mayor of Dublin does not. While biodiversity is an important issue, the more immediate issue is how to help save our communities from the ravages of drugs.

When can we expect the citizens' assembly on drugs to be established? What will its terms of reference be? It cannot be pigeonholed into the single issue of whether we should legalise cannabis or take other specific approaches. The cannabis lobby is strong and we all have engaged and listened to arguments about medicinal cannabis. That is a separate debate. I want the terms of reference of the citizens' assembly on drugs to be broad and to allow scope to drill down and look at best international practice and how we can bring those good practices in other countries into play in Ireland. I worry that the terms of reference could be too focused and narrow. While they are important, what is most important at this stage is that we get a date for when the citizens' assembly will be established and we will be able to study the terms of reference. Perhaps we could have a debate in the Houses on the terms of reference when they are made available.

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