By The Center for Justice Innovation

This mapping report looking at the alternatives to coercive sanctions for low-level drug offences, forms part of one of the strategic priorities identified in the mid-term review of the National Drug Strategy established in 2017. As the government has shifted towards a healthy response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland, Alternatives to Coercive Sanctions (ACS) have become a recent area of increased focus. This Irish context aligns with the wider European policy shift towards a health-led approach to drug use, and this report will feed into the wider European strategy around this. The recommendations made by the Citizens Assembly on Drugs Use (CADU), established by the Oireachtas in 2023, have also been key in shifting the state’s approach towards promoting alternatives to coercive sanction for drug use. Recommendation 17 of the CADU report specifically says ‘The State should introduce a comprehensive health-led response to possession of drugs for personal use’.1 Criminalisation of drug possession has shown to be ineffective in reducing drug use while concurrently causing harm to individuals and society and placing continual pressure on justice system resources. In Ireland, drug possession continues to make up a significant proportion of drug-related crime, and the Rooney report highlights that “significant rates of offending behaviour amongst the sample were reportedly linked to both Drugs (48%) and Alcohol Misuse (53%)”.2 Alternatives to coercive sanctions on the other hand have shown promising evidence in their ability to reduce drug use and lower reoffending rates.3 As outlined in the European Commission study on ACS, despite the need for more robust evidence in the European context, “a study conducted in Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK found that quasi-compulsory treatment through the criminal justice system was effective in reducing crime” and “overall studies have found evidence that ACS can help reduce levels of substance use”.4 In order to identify local ACS across Ireland, we carried out a survey disseminated to relevant professionals in the sector and held follow-up remote in-depth interviews with several of them, to gain an understanding of specific existing initiatives as well as gaining insight into the appetite for different types of ACS across stakeholders. We found a total of nine relevant initiatives spanning across diverse types of ACS, including; The Garda Adult Caution Scheme, diversionary measures, The Dublin Drug Treatment Courts (DDTC), and drug treatment programmes with various criminal justice referral pathways into them. Some of these programmes have been operating for various lengths of time with the year they were established ranging from 2001 to 2023. The majority of the ACS we came across were local initiatives, with the only national one being the Garda Adult Caution Scheme. It appeared that there was no widespread knowledge about existing ACS across the country, and those interviewed about one project were often not aware of others. There also has been very limited use of the Adult Cautioning Scheme by An Garda Síochána for simple possession of cannabis or cannabis resin, as only 5,139 people were given this caution between December 2020 and February 2024, while 17,125 people were issued with a charge/ summons for this in the same period.5 This may suggest a lack of widespread awareness about the scheme. Overall, there seemed to be an appetite for ACS among those we spoke to, particularly within probation, court workers, the judiciary and the stakeholders and networks of those running local initiatives. One stakeholder mentioned there was an “aspiration to fund more successful national projects”, while another stated, “it would be easy to do this [refer to treatment] upon arrest, the difficulty would just be in setting up the electronic referral system”. The one agency that appeared to have a more varied perspective was An Garda Síochána, although this was not the case unilaterally, as the LEAR pre-court diversionary programme collaborated very successfully with local Gardaí. The findings of this report lead us to believe that at present Ireland is at the precipice of transforming how its justice system responds to drug use in a more effective and humane way. It has shown how local initiatives have identified a need for ACS and have begun to implement them throughout the country in the absence of a national ACS for possession of drugs for personal use. The innovative work undertaken across the system to support individuals with their drug use is laudable, but it is missing opportunities earlier to prevent offending and re-offending and improve health outcomes for its citizens.  

London: The Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) , 2024.20p.