(Slide) America currently has by far the largest prison population in the world with around

2.3 million people incarcerated and 20% of these are locked up for drug offences.
More people in the US are locked up for possession of cannabis than for all violent crimes
combined despite the fact that it’s now legal to buy in many states. (Slide)
The US also has by far the most drug related deaths globally with 185 deaths per million
people every year which adds up to around 70,000 people annually.
Ireland unfortunately is not doing much better and ranks fifth highest on the list per capita
with around 730 people dying every year either from overdosing or from drug induced
suicide.
In the 80’s Switzerland had a major problem with drugs and in particular heroin. The Swiss
decided to introduce policies in 1994 which were extremely controversial at the time and
included dispensing heroin directly to users. Since 2012 possession of small amounts of
cannabis is also no longer a criminal offence.
In recent years a right-wing party in Switzerland tried to scrap these drug policies but two
thirds of people voted against it as the results had been overwhelmingly positive.
In 2001 Portugal introduced laws which stopped personal drug use being a criminal offence.
People could no longer be locked up as long as the amount they were caught with didn’t
exceed what was deemed to be a ten-day supply.
The country at the time had a huge problem with heroin use, with an estimated 1% of the
10 million population using the drug regularly.
The government decided that instead of treating drug users likes criminals they would treat
them as if they had a medical condition and get them the help that they needed.
The results of these changes to the law were massively positive with deaths due to drug use
dropping to one of the lowest levels in the world, as well as crime rates and the number of
people contracting HIV and other diseases dropping considerably. (Slide)
Since then many other countries have changed their approach to tackling drug use in
different ways.
The countries here in orange have decriminalised all personal drug use.
The countries in green have decriminalised possession of cannabis.
Canada and many states in the US have made it legal to dispense cannabis.
The countries in black including Ireland are considering decriminalisation.
With the positive results in other countries there’s a strong case for Ireland and the US to
follow Portugal and Switzerland’s example and decriminalise all personal drug use.