Misuse of Drugs Dail Éireann — 2023-09-21 ============================================================ Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth I agree with what has already been said. The fact is that when we talk about cocaine, we are dealing with a cocaine pandemic. The place is absolutely littered with it. Deputy Griffin is correct when he uses the term "normalised". Some young people who are involved in sport prefer to take cocaine than alcohol. Others think cocaine is the means by which they can continue to drink for three days in a slightly more presentable way. We all know the outworkings and what happens. We know that some people will run into serious issues long before health issues arise. There will be a knock on the door and the rest of it. We need to ensure there is information. We also need to look at addiction services and harm reduction. I was at a joint policing committee meeting recently. Drug dealing is happening on every street. We know that this cannot be policed out. We all welcome that the citizens' assembly is finally up and running, and we want to see what will come from it. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-09-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:11+00:00 Sitting date: 2023-09-21