PRIEST'S APPEAL TO DECRIMINALISE HEROIN LIKELY TO FALL ON DEAF EARS

A FRANCISCAN priest wants drugs, including heroin, decriminalised and drug
distribution centres for addicts established.

Fr Gerry Raftery, who works with drug users and destitute people, will seek
the decriminalisation of heroin in a submission to the National Crime
Forum, in Dublin, today.

"It is time to consider decriminalisation and limited legalisation of drug
use in order to take the supply of drugs out of the hands of criminals and
to minimalise harm associated with drug use," Fr Raftery said.

"Our main concern is with heroin. It should be decriminalised to take
control out of the hands of drug dealers, reduce petty crime, and cut
health risks," he said.

He said the legalisation of heroin would make it easier to control a
problem which successive governments have failed to resolve.

"If it was available it would make it easier for drug addicts to stabilise
their lifestyles. It would also cut down on drug users because addicts have
to go out and find new customers to fund their own habits."

"The whole thing could be more controlled and stabilised if it was
decriminalised because like it or not drugs ... will remain a part of
society," the Galway-born priest said.

"Criminalising drugs just drives the whole thing underground and leads to
more crime and more health dangers," Fr Raftery, who works with the
Franciscan Justice Office said.

The Francisan Justice Office will present its proposals to the National
Crime Forum this morning. However, their radical approach is likely to fall
on deaf ears within the Department of Justice. A spokesman said he would
not comment on Fr Raftery's proposals until after they had been put to the
National Crime Forum. However, he stressed that the Government was already
taking strong measures to tackle heroin dealers through legislation.

Measures providing for ten-year sentences for dealers found with more than
£10,000 worth of drugs are before the D·il," the spokesman said.

The Franciscan Justice Office said it was up to the Government to address
the root cause of drug addiction instead of criminalising it.

"Poverty has been shown again and again to be related to crime.

Poverty itself can be seen as crime. If poverty is a crime then perhaps it
is Government, the social and economic policy makers who should be called
criminals," Fr Raftery said.