Organised Crime: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2023-04-20
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Gino Kenny (PBP), Dublin Mid-West

They are thinking of other issues, such as whether the drugs will have an effect on them.
This is a complex issue. We must look at different models because the current model does not work. Criminalising people does not work. It only enriches a certain number of people in society. The radical approach is to decriminalise drugs and have a wider debate around regulation. If we look around the world, it is clear we cannot police our way out of the drug industry or drug world. It is impossible. As I said, people use drugs for all sorts of reasons. It is a brutal reality and it can be extremely ugly. I have seen what drugs have done to people very close to me and it is horrible. Based on my life experience, I believe we need to do something different. Criminalising people does not work because, again, it only enriches a tiny number of people in our society. We need to do something different and I hope the citizens' assembly will come back with a different model from the one we have at the moment.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-04-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-04-20