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An interesting piece appeared in the Examiner today, on an issue now largely ignored by the rest of the papers, who prefer more recessionary topics - the continued increase in recreational to obsessional drug use in Ireland.  Seemingly there has been a large increase in "drug debts" especially for coke use, and this is spilling over into intimidation of families as they are "held responsible" for family members debts.

What is particularly interesting is the hugely ineffective and naive "drug education" which even young people themselves are critical of, and of course, the fact that effectively all drug "education" ends once people leave second level education - nonsensical when you consider that a large proportion of drugs are "new drugs" that have only come into the scene in recent years and thus large numbers of people will be about 20 years out of date.  Good examples are both ecstasy and crystal meths.  These were unknown when I left school, and cocaine was very much a rich mans drug.  So there was no information at all available about them, and very poor information later on.

Another issue not mentioned by the report on the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016 is the negative impact of heavy handed legal policies on individual users, who are often hung out to dry in courts for relatively minor infractions and possession of often very tiny amounts.  Individual Gardai get endless spiteful delight from discovering even a fingernail of cannabis in a drunks pocket at night, that can lead to a conviction that often will shadow over the person for the rest of their lives, and often discourage users from making any real effort to change their ways.  Serious consideration needs to be given into the handling of users with small amounts, especially if it is secondary to what they've actually been arrested for.

The irony of course, is that Ireland became the main manufacturing centre for MDMA/E substitutes based on benzylpiperazine once it was outlawed in NZ in 2007, a pretty nasty drug which has the most horrendous side effects of any drug I've seen.  It apparently became a controlled substance at the end of March, but I've still seen it around headshops, etc.  No doubt some new synthesis will appear soon enough to replace it.

I definitely think there is a now a strong case for a reassessment and reassignment of illegal drugs based on knowledge that has changed since 1977.  For example it is clear now that normal cannabis is far less harmful than most other substances, but stunk variations can be more harmful.  This needs to be assessed and separate assessment considered.  In fact with many EU countries gradually moving towards legal tolerance for cannabis, Ireland could be a good place to start a legal growing industry, something that would nullify much of the illegal trade and also stimulate what right now appears to be a dying economy.