Scheme aiming to reduce court appearances for drug possession ‘arbitrary’ – TD

The system that sees people who have been found in possession of controlled drugs for personal use cautioned instead of charged is “arbitrary”, TD Gino Kenny has said.

Although the inclusion of cannabis possession in the system may have led to a “plateauing” in the number of drugs possession charges issued in the last three or four years, it is too based on individual personnel, he said.

The People Before Profit TD argued that the decriminalisation of people found in possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use was the only way to fix the model.

There were 6,396 drugs possession charges issued in 2023 up until October, based on the number of possession of drugs contrary to Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 logged on the Garda Pulse system.

The charge relates to a person who is in possession of a controlled drug for their own personal use.

There were 6,373 of these possession charges in 2022, 6,624 in 2021, and 6,545 in 2020, according to figures released by the Department of Justice to Labour TD Aodhan O’Riordain.

There were 5,250 possession charges in 2019, 4,285 charges in 2018 and 3,692 in 2017.

These are individual charges, meaning one person may be charged multiple times for the same offence.

Mr Kenny told the PA news agency that since the adult cautionary scheme included cannabis, “the numbers haven’t gone down, they’ve basically plateaued”.

He added: “In late 2020 the adult cautionary scheme included cannabis as part of that scheme. Obviously that was welcome, but you look at the trajectory over the past five/six years, the amount of people brought to court for simple possession, particularly since 2017, it has doubled.

“It’s very arbitrary in relation to discretion of an individual guard, or an individual superintendent, and even a judge… To me, that doesn’t work.

“So it does show that the Misuse of Drugs Act has to be amended. It has to be enshrined that if somebody is in possession of a small amount of cannabis, in this case, or other drugs, they don’t go before a judge, simple as that.

“To me, that’s what decriminalisation is. If they could do it via other means, I’d like to see, but so far I’m not convinced.”

Mr Kenny reiterated the point that has been made that it is a “waste of resources” to send people before a judge and could lead to prison time.

“Any police force or any state spend on the containment of drug use is colossal, it’s just a colossal amount of resources that go into this.”

He added: “Now, are people being brought before the court for say five euro worth of cannabis? I’d be very surprised.

“You could smell cannabis on a regular basis when you’re going through Dublin. Now is an individual garda going to stop someone smoking a joint? I’d be surprised. They could, in theory they can arrest the person. Whether they’re doing that, I doubt it.

“My guess is that the police, if they are going to say something, they’ll say ‘smoke that somewhere else lads’. There is a certain degree of liberalisation, but there are still people being brought before the courts in relation to small possession of illicit drugs. And to me, that would continue unless you start looking at the legislation in itself.”

The Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use recommended that while possession of illicit drugs should remain illegal, those found in possession should be given “first and foremost, extensive opportunities to engage voluntarily with health-led services”.

A special committee is to be established in April to examine those recommendations and produce a report making a series of recommendations for the Government.

Mr Kenny said: “My view and the sounding I’ve got thus far from Government is they will not go down the road of amending the Misuse of Drugs Act.

“They’re going down the health-led and diversion approach and I think, by the sound of it, they will expand the adult cautionary scheme to other illicit drugs. And that’s I think the intention of the Government.”

He said that if someone has a chronic dependency on a substance and needs help, a health-based approach is appropriate, but added that if there is not a dependency issue, he does not see the need to send them through a “dissuasion route”.

“Now I know they do that in Portugal, and I’m not against it in principle… I would be of the opinion if somebody is in possession of any drugs, that’s their business.”

Data on drug charges are usually based on the Garda’s online system Pulse, the department said.