Irish Committee Recommends Decriminalising Drug Possession, But Current Government Isn't Convinced

Written by Hannah Barnett

In June 2026, a committee of house members in the Irish Parliament published more than 150 recommendations for moving the country towards a health-led approach to drug possession. At the top of the list was the recommendation to decriminalise the possession of all drugs for personal use, to be achieved by repealing Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 criminalising possession.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use was formed to review recommendations made in 2024 by the Citizens Assembly on Drug Use. The Citizen’s Assembly proposed a model where possession would remain illegal, but people found with drugs for personal use would be offered extensive voluntary health-led engagement first, potentially removing criminal conviction and prison sentences entirely.

Under a decriminalisation framework, drugs remain illegal, but a person found in possession of them for personal use would not receive a criminal sanction. Exactly what "illegal" means in practice, however, is contested. The Committee's approach to repeal Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act would remove the criminal offence from the statute book entirely, rather than simply softening how it's enforced.

Other recommendations included running national prevention and harm-reduction campaigns on sensible drug use and legally enforcing the provision of mobile consumption facilities and consumption sites across the country.

Acknowledging the harms caused by punitive drug policies, the Committee also recommended ending short prison sentences for non-violent drug-related offences.

Historical Approach to Drug Possession in Ireland

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin responded to the Committee’s statements by noting that the government has already been enacting a health-led national drug approach for the last several decades. Over the last 8 years, he states, his coalition had increased funding to the Department of Health for drug-related programmes by €54 million to €174m.

Ireland's "Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery" strategy for 2017–2025 was explicitly framed as a health-led response to drug and alcohol use, aiming to minimise harms and promote rehabilitation and recovery rather than lead with prosecution. Practical measures from this era include a naloxone demonstration project providing take-home overdose-reversal kits to opiate users, and a working group that recommended an extension of the adult caution scheme for simple possession. The approach could be understood as a form of informal, practice-level leniency rather than a change in the law itself.

The success of the strategy, however, was questioned in the Committee’s report, demonstrating how Section 3 possession charges during this “health-led” era actually rose from 6,618 in 2021 to 8,287 in 2025.

Government Response to Recommendations

The Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and National Drugs Strategy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor stated that the government has no plans to repeal Section  3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act. She said such a repeal would "effectively legalise the possession of drugs for personal use," and also is contrary to the Citizens Assembly’s 2024 recommendations.

Her statement was disputed by Social Democrats TD and Committee chair Gary Gannon, stating that “the Citizens Assembly and today's report both recommend decriminalisation. Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act is the means by which drugs for personal use are criminalised. Repealing it simply gives statutory effect to that recommendation.”

Social Democrats TD and Committee chair Gary Gannon, Photo From Social Democrats Press Release

The government, however, did agree with the Committee’s recommendations specifically around responding to people found in possession with drugs, and “has agreed to divert those found in possession of drugs for personal use to the health services, in line with a health-led approach to drug use," said Minister Murnane.

As such, the government's position appears to be one of de facto tolerance rather than formal decriminalisation: harm reduction will continue through practice-based, non-statutory approaches, but possession itself will remain a criminal offence within Irish law.