Drug Law Reform — Citizens' Assembly on Drug Use and Decriminalisation

Ireland's first heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) pilot was established at Merchant's Quay Ireland's services in Dublin in 2017, providing pharmaceutical heroin (diacetylmorphine) under supervised clinical conditions to a small cohort of long-term opioid-dependent patients who had not responded to other treatments including methadone. The pilot followed the model established in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Clinical evidence from the pilot showed reductions in street heroin use, criminal activity and social exclusion among participants.

A Private Member's Bill to establish a drug checking service (allowing people to have drugs tested for harmful adulterants before use) was introduced in the Oireachtas in 2019. The Bill, which had support from harm-reduction NGOs and public health researchers, was rejected by the Government of the day on the grounds that it was inconsistent with the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. Drug checking services had been established in Portugal, Spain and the UK and were associated with reduced drug-related deaths from adulterants such as fentanyl.

The Government established the Citizens' Assembly on Drug Use in October 2021, comprising 99 randomly selected citizens representing the demographic profile of Irish society. The Assembly was tasked with considering the personal, social, economic and health dimensions of drug use in Ireland, and making recommendations on how the State should respond. The establishment of the Assembly followed a proposal from an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use and reflected growing cross-party and civil society consensus that Ireland's drug policy required fundamental review.

The Central Statistics Office, in its annual report on drug-related deaths (produced with the HRB), reported 218 drug-related deaths in 2022 — the highest figure on record for Ireland. Opioids (primarily methadone and heroin) were implicated in the majority of deaths. The figure placed Ireland above the EU average for drug-related deaths per million of population. The data was presented to the Citizens' Assembly as evidence of the public health emergency dimension of drug use in Ireland.

The Citizens' Assembly on Drug Use published its final report in October 2023 after two years of deliberation. The Assembly made 36 recommendations, including: that Ireland adopt a health-led rather than criminal justice-led approach to drug use; that personal possession of all drugs for personal use be decriminalised; that regulated access to cannabis and potentially other substances be considered; that drug checking services be legalised; and that additional investment be made in addiction treatment and harm reduction. The report was adopted by the Assembly with a majority of over 80% on the key health-led approach recommendation.

Following the publication of the Citizens' Assembly report, the Cabinet agreed in November 2023 to pursue a partial decriminalisation pathway: removing criminal penalties for personal possession of small quantities of specified controlled drugs and replacing them with a civil penalty and mandatory referral to a health assessment. The Government did not accept the Assembly's recommendation on cannabis regulation or other supply-side reforms at this stage. Minister Helen McEntee (Justice) and Minister of State Frank Feighan (Drugs) announced the approach jointly.

The Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill was introduced to the Oireachtas in 2024, providing for the decriminalisation of personal possession of small quantities of controlled drugs (thresholds to be set by ministerial order). The Bill provided for a civil penalty (fixed-penalty notice) and mandatory referral to a health assessment as the primary response to personal possession, replacing criminal prosecution. Possession with intent to supply and drug trafficking remained criminal offences.

The Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Act was passed by the Oireachtas in May 2025 and signed by the President. The Act removed criminal penalties for personal possession of specified controlled drugs below set threshold quantities, replacing them with a civil penalty notice and mandatory referral to a health assessment service. This represented the most significant reform of Irish drug law since the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 and its 1984 amendment. Possession with intent to supply, production, importation and trafficking remained criminal offences.

The Health Research Board published its annual drug-related deaths report for 2023 in 2025. The EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, now EUDA) published its annual Ireland drug situation report, documenting drug use trends, treatment demand and drug-related deaths. Both reports provided the data context for monitoring the impact of the partial decriminalisation reforms.

As of May 2026, the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025 is in implementation. Civil penalty notices for personal possession have replaced criminal prosecutions. The health assessment referral pathway is operational through HSE addiction services. The Government has not proceeded with the Citizens' Assembly recommendation on cannabis regulation or other supply-side reforms. Drug-related deaths data for 2024 and 2025 will provide the first empirical evidence on the health impact of decriminalisation. Critics argue that decriminalisation of demand, without action on supply, has limited public health impact.

The Central Statistics Office and Health Research Board recorded 218 drug-related deaths in Ireland in 2022, the highest figure on record. Opioids (primarily methadone and heroin) were implicated in the majority of deaths. Ireland's drug-related death rate was above the EU average. The high death toll was cited by the Citizens' Assembly as evidence of the failure of the existing criminal justice-led approach to reduce drug-related harm. Decriminalisation of personal possession is intended to reduce the barrier to treatment-seeking and to reduce the health risks associated with criminalisation.

Under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, personal possession of controlled drugs for personal use was a criminal offence, creating a criminal record that had significant consequences for employment, travel and social participation. Research by the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association and the HRB documented that drug possession prosecutions were disproportionately concentrated in areas of socioeconomic deprivation, and that those prosecuted were predominantly young men from disadvantaged communities. The Citizens' Assembly found that criminalisation of personal use was not an effective deterrent and had significant social harms.

Decriminalisation of personal possession of drugs is associated — based on the Portuguese experience since 2001 — with increased treatment uptake, reduced HIV transmission among people who inject drugs, and reduced drug-related deaths. Ireland's heroin-assisted treatment pilot (Merchant's Quay, 2017) provided domestic evidence for the effectiveness of health-led interventions. The Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Act 2025 is intended to reduce the stigma and legal barrier to treatment-seeking, by removing the threat of criminal prosecution for people who seek help for problematic drug use.

Communities in areas of high drug use (including parts of Dublin's inner city, Limerick, Cork and Drogheda) have raised concerns about open drug use in public spaces and the impact on community safety perception. Some community representatives and Garda representatives raised concerns during Oireachtas debate that decriminalisation, without adequate investment in treatment, could increase visible drug use in public spaces. The Government's position is that the mandatory health assessment referral pathway in the 2025 Act is designed to address this concern.

The UN drug conventions, to which Ireland is a party, oblige member states to make personal possession of controlled drugs a criminal offence. However, the UNODC has clarified that the conventions allow a degree of flexibility, including that possession for personal use may be treated as a health matter rather than a criminal one, provided the convention's general prohibition framework is maintained. The EMCDDA has documented that many EU member states, including Portugal, have adopted decriminalisation approaches within the convention framework. Ireland's partial decriminalisation approach is structured to be compatible with convention obligations by retaining criminal penalties for supply.

If breached: Political and diplomatic consequences at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs; potential challenge from INCB (International Narcotics Control Board).

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, as amended by the 1984 Act and subsequent statutory instruments, is the primary Irish legislation controlling the possession, supply, production and importation of controlled drugs. The 2025 Amendment Act modifies the personal possession provisions but leaves the supply, trafficking and production provisions unchanged. Compliance with the amended Act requires implementation of the civil penalty and health assessment referral pathway.

If breached: Criminal prosecution for supply, trafficking and production offences; civil penalty proceedings for personal possession above threshold.

The National Drugs Strategy 2017–2025, 'Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery', set out a health-led framework for Ireland's drug policy, with commitments on treatment, rehabilitation, harm reduction and supply control. The Strategy included commitments on piloting new harm-reduction interventions (including the heroin-assisted treatment pilot), expanding naloxone access, and improving data collection on drug-related deaths. The Government is required to report annually on implementation of the Strategy's actions.

If breached: Oireachtas scrutiny; reputational consequences; public health consequences from failure to implement harm-reduction commitments.

Harm-reduction NGOs and some opposition TDs raised that the Government's 'partial decriminalisation' approach implemented only a subset of the Citizens' Assembly's recommendations and did not address the supply side of the drug problem. The Assembly had recommended regulated access to cannabis and other substances; the Government did not accept these recommendations. The objection was that without addressing supply, decriminalisation of possession would reduce individual harm from prosecution but would not reduce the public health burden of drug use in communities or the drug-related death rate.

The Garda Representative Association and some inner-city community groups raised concerns during the Oireachtas debate on the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill that decriminalisation, without adequate community-based treatment infrastructure, would lead to an increase in visible public drug use in urban areas. The GRA's position was that civil penalty notices would be difficult to enforce against people who were unwilling to engage with the health assessment referral system, and that Garda resources for drug enforcement were already under pressure.

Addiction service providers raised that decriminalisation of personal possession, combined with mandatory referral to health assessment, would increase demand for addiction treatment services that are already under capacity pressure. The objection was that the Government had not accompanied the legislative reform with sufficient additional investment in HSE addiction treatment capacity, and that the mandatory health assessment referral pathway could become a 'revolving door' without adequate treatment places. Waiting times for addiction treatment in some CHO areas exceeded several weeks.