Maria Corrigan (Fianna Fail)

I support the calls by other Senators for a debate on drugs. Such a debate should seek the integration of the alcohol and drug strategies. It is no longer acceptable or appropriate to view alcohol abuse and drug or substance abuse as two separate issues. In reality, alcohol is most frequently the gateway to drug abuse. If we are concerned about early intervention through an effective drugs strategy, there must be a seamless integration of the alcohol strategy within it. I refer to the right of individuals to choose to take drugs. That issue must be viewed in the context of the implications for others of people taking drugs.

Three issues need to be considered. The first is that the taking of drugs fuels criminal activity as a result of which innocent people are being injured with increasing frequency and, in some cases, killed. The second is that there is a real chance that the taking of drugs will impact detrimentally on a person's motor and visual skills and on the integration of both. That has implications for anyone for whom such a person taking drugs has responsibility.

The final issue is that there is an area with which we are not familiar, namely, the implications for people taking drugs in later life. We now have the research to back up the fact there is a direct link between the onset of mental health difficulties and mental illness as a result of taking drugs. We must ask in that context how we can afford individuals the absolute right to take drugs.