Firearms Amnesty Should Include Drugs

I have today called for the Justice Minister’s recently announced amnesty for firearms and knives to include illegal drugs.

Illegal drugs are by far the most lethal weapon currently available on the streets of Dublin. The last week in my own area of the North Inner City has seen two seizures of heroin worth €100,000 which is a drop in the ocean of what is freely available every day across the city.

'Drugs are tearing many of our communities apart and too many of our young people are being sucked into the industry which promises lucrative rewards. Many fall out of formal education having been seduced by the money, the glamour, and the danger of the drugs trade. I see outside my own school, I see it all over the city and it is an incredibly depressing sight.

I am calling on he minister to include illegal drugs in his forthcoming amnesty to allow anybody who wishes to surrender illegal substances to do so without recrimination. If a person in our society wishes to voluntarily take drugs out of the system and off the streets they should be encouraged and the minister should give them the opportunity to do so.