Optimism Despite Delays: Ireland’s Journey Toward Cannabis Decriminalisation
The Irish Government has approved the establishment of an Oireachtas committee to examine the Citizens’ Assembly recommendations for the decriminalisation of drug use ‘as quickly as possible’.
It comes just two weeks after the Dáil, Ireland’s lower parliamentary house, voted to delay by nine months a bill that would legislate for the decriminalisation of small amounts of cannabis.
Despite seemingly widespread support for both the bill and the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly, the government has been accused of ‘kicking the can down the road’ until the upcoming election, while paying the minimum ‘lip service to reform’.
However, there is a palpable sense of optimism that Ireland, historically one of the EU’s most conservative nations in regard to drug law, is now on the brink of meaningful and inevitable change.
