Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I thank the witnesses for their compelling statements. Nobody listening in will disagree that the war on drugs has failed. As Ms Eastwood said, prohibition is not working and punitive policies are killing people. Nobody can disagree with that. I have a couple of questions for Professor Stevens initially. He said that it is not just a question of a binary choice between prohibition and legalisation and that is good to know. It is good to have that context and to know that there is wriggle room in relation to policies going forward. I ask him to elaborate on which intermediary policy options are appropriate in an Irish context today. Has anything changed since the report he produced in 2018 and what legal steps may be required?