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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Ireland: Cannabis Users Should Not Go To Prison, Says Minister Katie Hannon The Examiner (Ireland) Saturday 08 Apr 2000 Saturday 8 April 2000 Cannabis Users Should Not Go To Prison, Says Minister by Katie Hannon CANNABIS users should not be sent to prison, the Minister of State in charge of the National Drugs Strategy Eoin Ryan believes. The Minister is to review a controversial report by Britain's Police Foundation which recommends the decriminalisation of cannabis and the reclassification of ecstasy from a class A to a class B drug. While the Government is not considering decriminalising cannabis, he believes cannabis users should not be sent to prison. "I think it would be very regrettable if somebody ended up in prison for smoking cannabis. I think it would not be good for that person. Certainly we would not be helping that person's future by putting them in prison," he said. He stressed that he was referring to personal use only and not the possession of large quantities of the drug. Mr Ryan said the chances of being sentenced to jail for smoking a joint in this State are slight. "The numbers are very few. It's minuscule... practically nobody." Mr Ryan caused a stir days after his appointment when he acknowledged that he had smoked cannabis in his past. However, he said it was wrong to suggest that the State was wasting resources on fighting the supply of soft drugs like cannabis. "A lot of resources are not going into prosecutions for cannabis. Most of the resources are going into the fight against the hard drugs like heroin." Mr Ryan said he had serious reservations about legalising cannabis because of what he said was the failure of the Dutch experience and because of the message it would send out. "It's sending out to young people the message that it is okay. And cannabis smoking among disadvantaged young people at school is definitely causing problems. And that has been proven. It further hinders their educational development. "For us to put out a message that it's safe to do it would be wrong. It has not been proven that it is safe to do it. There are more reports coming forward that it can do more damage than people realise." Reacting to the recommendation by the British Police Foundation that ecstasy be reclassified as a softer drug, he said sending out the message that it's okay to take ecstasy is irresponsible. "People die from ecstasy. People talk about genetically modified food and say that not enough research has gone into them. But we don't know anything about the drug. Certainly there's a lot of question marks about the long term affects it may have on users."
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