Debate contribution: Addiction and Drug-related Deaths

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 23 April 2024.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

23 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Addiction and Drug-related Deaths

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4485539

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for tabling today's motion. It is clear that the war on drugs has failed. Working-class areas are in the grip of a deepening mental health and drug addiction crisis, and those affected deserve our support. Communities devastated by years of austerity and inequality are at the sharp end of those crises, and that is the direct impact of the failure of the state — Westminster and Stormont — to lift people out of poverty and to invest in mental health services and addiction support. Obviously, there are no quick and easy solutions to some of the problems, but we need to start with an approach that deals with it primarily as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue. We need to recognise that those who use drugs often self-medicate while they are forced to cope with the ravages of a broken economic system, including having trauma themselves. Therefore, I welcome the call today for the provision of a properly equipped rehab centre, but, given the agenda of the Executive and the talk of budget cuts and budget restraints, I seriously question that they will provide the necessary funding. I hope that the motion is not just for the optics. I think that Sinn Féin and the DUP may, in theory, want a rehab centre, but are they prepared to bring that forward and fund it in practice? Similarly, no Executive parties will say that they want people to suffer mental ill health, but they continue to underfund mental health services year-on-year. By doing so, the Government condemn more people to addiction and far too many to death. The number of drug deaths in the North has risen by 40% in 10 years. That has happened on the watch of the ruling parties here, and the need for better services is greater than ever. However, tackling this critical issue will require funding and resources. I hope that I am wrong, but I am not confident that the Executive are prepared to provide that funding in the context of yet another austerity Budget. Delivery of the services needs to be more than a hypothetical suggestion or a distant aspiration. A safe injection centre is not mentioned in the motion — it needs to be — but we need that and more needle exchange programmes so that we can prevent overdoses, ensure people's safety and ensure that needles are disposed of properly. The law and order approach does not work. It serves only to criminalise those with serious addiction issues and allows paramilitary and criminal gangs to ultimately profit from the trade. By every metric, the war on drugs has failed: drug use has remained largely the same, whilst drug deaths have increased. Time and again, we hear of the success of countries like Portugal, which has deployed a health-based model, yet the state refuses to accept and listen to the evidence. Portugal has the lowest number of drug deaths in western Europe, at one tenth the rate of Britain and one fiftieth of that of the US. From around 2001 to 2018, Portugal's number of heroin addicts dropped from 100,000 to 25,000 — a huge reduction of 75% — and HIV infections from drug use injection had declined by 90%. Those are incredible figures. In Switzerland, which has also taken a more progressive approach, drug deaths have halved since the mid-1990s. In that same period, the UK's drug deaths have doubled. The health-based model is safer, reduces drug use and saves money that would otherwise be pumped into futile policing and justice that has not worked. The Home Office spends an estimated £20 billion per year on the war on drugs, whilst the British Government spend just £680 million on treatment and prevention. The Executive have allocated £63 million to the PSNI's paramilitary crime task force whilst continuing to criminalise drug users who need support. It is also unacceptable for the Government to actively criminalise addicts while refusing to address the root causes of their problems: poverty, a lack of social housing, stagnant wages, declining services and so on. The Executive need to get real about tackling those issues. If they commit to opening a rehab centre, I ask them to commit to funding it. The Government should also recognise the failures of the Misuse of Drugs Act and the lives that have been lost due to the war on drugs. They should recognise the need to treat addiction as a health issue and commit to opening an overdose prevention centre where people can use drugs safely under medical supervision. They also need to recognise that the austerity agenda, cuts and Tory-backed Budget that they will likely implement in the days and weeks ahead will only fuel poverty and, as a result, addiction in the long run.

801 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:08 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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