Don't hold your breath

Last month saw a genuinely historic move on the issue of reform of the drug laws in Britain, when Home Secretary David Blunkett proposed a relaxation of the nation’s 30-year-old cannabis legislation, until now the most stringent in Europe.

If the proposals go ahead (and they will first have to be debated in Parliament), cannabis will be reclassified as class C drug, putting it on the same level with tranquillisers and steroids but stopping short of decriminalisation.

Use of the drug will still be considered to be outside of the law but the penalty for dealing will be cut from 14 years to five and those caught smoking will no longer face arrest (currently the number is 90,000 a year).

Blunkett has also signalled that he is ready to licence the drug as a painkiller, a persistent demand from the medical lobby. The policy (which has been given a successful trial in South London) should, all being well, be put into practice in spring of next year.

The reasons for this apparently sudden change of tack are probably due more to pragmatism than any ideological shift. Cannabis cases account for 90% of UK police drug arrests, tying up 74,000 man-hours a year in London alone. By taking this out of the equation, or so the argument goes, the police will be able to concentrate on the more serious drug issues. It will also remove a huge number of people from contact with suppliers who deal not just in ‘soft’ drugs, but at the harder, more sinister end of the market.

Where all this leaves us on this side of the Irish Sea remains to be seen. Already, the signs are that the tide of public and political opinion is starting to turn. A recent Internet poll for the Irish Times showed a 70% vote in favour of decriminalisation. Earlier this year, Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne came out in support of the medical use of the drug, a view strongly backed by Dr Orla Hardiman, a consultant neurologist. And in these very pages, Eoin Ryan TD – the minister responsible for the National Drugs Strategy – questioned the wisdom of a low tolerance policing policy. In the meantime, the drugs seizures keep on coming as the Gardaí target events such as Slane and this summer’s Creamfields. Clearly, what is being considered in the corridors of power is a fair way off from making it into practice.

So, what effect will events across the water have on the drug debate in Ireland? If hotpress’ efforts to gather information are anything to go by, the government is playing its cards close to its chest.

With Eoin Ryan’s Department of Sport, Leisure & Tourism an obvious first point of call, it was immediately clear the cannabis issue seems to have become something of a political hot potato. Despite its role in the National Drugs Strategy, the department’s spokesman suggested that this was actually more of a matter for the Department of Health. So we rang them. Yes, to a certain extent, they were the relevant party – as far as the use of the drug for medical reasons was concerned. But for a comment on recreational use, we really should talk to the Department of Justice. Which we did. And they said that it was a matter for the Department of Health.

Confused? The closest we have come to an official government line on the issue came in the Dáil on October 17th, when the Minister of State for Health, Mary Hanafin, responded to a question from Simon Coveney TD regarding the medical use of cannabis. “A serious debate on recreational drug use is needed,” she said, “but first we need to put to bed the issue of cannabis for medicinal purposes …it is an entirely separate issue.” While remarking that it would be possible to apply for a licence to test the possible uses of the substance, Ms Hanafin went on to say that “these medical claims are not currently supported by the results of medical research”. She also reminded her audience that the government’s approach to the drug problem was a “concerted focus on supply reduction,

prevention, treatment and research”. No mention, you may notice, of decriminalisation.

Others are cautiously heartened by recent events. Ming the Merciless is one of the country’s more high profile commentators on the issue, taking his fight for legalisation into local, national and European elections. For him, though, the British move still doesn’t go far enough.

“Let’s say you were a user of alcohol, if a Guard came up to you in the street and took it off you, you wouldn’t be too happy,” he observes.

But will we follow suit?

“I think the elected politicians over here will say it’s not going to happen, how long they can keep that up I don’t know. They managed to keep it up for quite a long time with regards to condoms and divorce, but it happened eventually. We’re kind of like the Catholic Church, it took them a while to realise that the Sun didn’t revolve around the Earth. After a while we cop on and do what is obviously right”.