Ireland plans to decriminalise small amounts of heroin and cocaine

The possession and consumption of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and cannabis will be decriminalised in Ireland next year, according to Aodhan O Riordain, the minister in charge of the National Drugs Strategy.

Supervised injecting rooms will also be set up as part of a "radical culture shift" in drugs policy, he said. However, it would still be a crime to sell or distribute these drugs.

Speaking at a London School of Economics conference last night, O Riordain said: "I am firmly of the view that there needs to be a cultural shift in how we regard substance misuse if we are to break this cycle and make a serious attempt to tackle drug and alcohol addiction."

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O Riordain told the Irish Times the medically supervised injection rooms "will happen next year", with the first one opening in Dublin, followed by facilities in Cork, Limerick and Galway. These will not be "free-for-all" facilities for drug addicts, he said, but "clinically controlled environments which aim to engage hard-to-reach populations".

This will be possible if a new Misuse of Drugs Bill, currently being drawn up, is enacted "early next year", the minister explained.

Recently, a leaked paper from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recommended that drugs be decriminalised for possession and personal consumption, as criminalisation "has contributed to public health problems and induced negative consequences for safety, security, and human rights".

The paper, written by Dr Monica Beg, chief of the HIV/AIDs section of the UNODC in Vienna, was backed by Virgin founder Richard Branson, who urged governments to heed it. According to the BBC, however, the paper was never sanctioned by the organisation as policy and was withdrawn after pressure from at least one country.

Next April, the UN General Assembly will host a summit on "The World Drug problem", where officials are expected to discuss the matter further.