David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the superintendent for being with us and for his work in this area. We visited Portugal a number of years ago and I met a lot of people there who were involved in this project and the policy, which was very impressive. We had a presentation earlier this week from police from Vancouver and someone from the United States about places where there was decriminalisation. It seemed to fail because it was not thought through properly. In Ireland, people are not supposed to drink alcohol in a public place. With decriminalisation of drug use, it is not a crime for someone to have a small amount for personal use on their person. What is the situation with using drugs in a public place in Portugal? That might be smoking cannabis, injecting heroin, snorting cocaine or however you take it.