Gino Kenny making some great points in the Dáil today on the issue of drugs: ‘The majority of people who have died from drug overdoses are largely working-class people…if this was in a different postal code in Dublin the response would be completely different’
Gino Kenny making some great points in the Dáil today on the issue of drugs: ‘The majority of people who have died from drug overdoses are largely working-class people…if this was in a different postal code in Dublin the response would be completely different’ from ireland
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Or as Aodhán Ó Ríordáin often puts it, if cattle were dying at the same rate as drug overdoses, we would call a national emergency.
Is he saying that if Blackrock was full of crackheads we’d legalise it?
He doesn’t mention what he wants done.
Just to make sure I understand the proposal here.
Kenny is proposing specifically the cannabis Regulation Bill isn’t he?
That proposes to decriminalise specifically and only cannabis for personal use.
This is different to the Aodhán Ó Ríordáin Labour proposition to decriminalise all drugs for personal use.
Am i right there?
He’s missing the point slightly.
Ireland’s “liberal” cohort was always the wealthy elite, which makes Ireland somewhat unusual. This subreddit is full of middle-class kids who hate the poor and the rich, and that’s where the indifference towards working-class people comes from.
This is true. Across every country, until the rich are severely impacted, the govts. do fuck all.
Obv nobody would vote for you if you don’t have budget to advertise your campaign and you don’t have budget unless you are from a certain higher class. So working class people end up voting for people who are disconnected from their issues, the ‘let them eat cake’ kind of politicians. Rinse and repeat.
Gino always looks like he’s gonna ask you for €2 for the bus.
If it was upper middle class people dying from drug overdoses (which they do from cocaine and the like), I think there still wouldn’t be political will to change. It would be swept under the carpet and people would still turn a blind eye.
The obvious counter to this is cocaine is still illegal and was (is?) the middle class drug of choice.
Going about your business in this city you’d be forgiving for thinking it was already fully legalised and perfectly legal to smoke cannabis in public.
It’s no longer just getting a blast of it from someone’s ground floor or first floor apartment, people are openly smoking it walking around the city centre. They’re not hiding in a lane way or trying to hide out of sight, I’ve seen a number of people recently walking around strutting their stuff openly smoking joints, not covered in that sneaky fashion under the cover of the palm of their hand, full on carrying it between the fingers like it was just a regular old cigarette.
I’m all for it being fully legalised, regulated and taxed but what I hate the smell of it and it lingers, even out in the open.
The middle class do most of the drugs and the working class face most of the consequences
I mean, rich and famous people have died from cocaine overdoses and it didn’t really impact public policy, did it?
In any case, the Swiss decriminalisation of drugs is definitely not out of sympathy or understanding for drug users, it was out of contempt and wanting to get them off all the main public areas in Zurich. Probably better to aim that route here tbh.
Doubt it.
The Anna Hick and Katy Ffrench deaths had no effect on public policy towards MDMA and cocaine.
Nobody should be criminalised for addiction. The war on drugs has failed spectacularly and causes nothing but misery for the most vulnerable, soft targets, ie. The drug user. Other countries have adopted approaches which have vastly improved things. FFFG have little sympathy for the working class.
Where can I see the ministers reply?
I’m not a fan of the assumption that addiction doesn’t exist in affluent areas/environments. Go into any treatment centre in the country and you will see the full spectrum of classes. It’s just a bit simplified and a weird angle to approach the decriminalisation issue.
There have been countless deaths at festivals, nightclubs, house parties of ‘well off’ people. Still nothing changes. Celebrities regularly die in highly publicised overdoses. Still nothing changes.
I’m totally on board with decriminalisation but I think the “if this was happening in Dalkey or Donnybrook” argument is a poor one.
So how does decriminalization without legalizing the supply market reduces drugs overdose? They will still be supplied shit with fentanyl in it.
Health services can still act even if using is a crime, they don’t have to report to the police.
I see no relation between these subjects.
Not sure I like this angle. FFG have kept drugs illegal because their voting base still believe the old yankie propaganda about it enabling working class people to go mad.
I don’t see this as a class issue. Drug addiction has ruined lives across the spectrum. Cocaine is responsible for a lot of Ireland’s addicts and it’s not a drug I’d associate with the working class.
Makes a good point but will throw bills up against the wall because he won’t work with anyone. Labour will step in and get the credit