LEGALISING DRUGS WILL ONLY WORSEN CRIME - LENIHAN

Decriminalisation, he argued, would be a recipe for a vastly increased
dependency on drugs.

"The harm that would be done by going down that road would far exceed
any benefits that might be gained from it," he told the MacGill Summer
School in Glenties, Co Donegal.

Mr Lenihan said it was nonsense to think Ireland could take that step
while drugs remained controlled in other jurisdictions.

"People who make the argument for decriminalisation rarely seem to
carry its logic to its conclusion and say that if people stopped using
illicit drugs then the crime associated with supply would disappear."

He said society had to tackle some real issues about the demand for
illicit drugs. "It is a cruel irony that while the use of what would
be regarded as hard drugs was once confined to areas of deprivation,
there is evidence now that in many cases it has become the product of
affluence."

He said the value of human life had been set at nought by members of
the gangs at the centre of this pernicious trade.

"We have seen a spate of savage killings. Sometimes, they happen
because of rows that take place related to the drugs trade.

"Others are related to feuds. Anyone who has any doubt about the
dangers of illicit drugs and the corrosive effect they have on society
need only look at the savagery with which often 'coked up' young men
take each others' lives," the minister added.

Mr Lenihan was critical of those who underestimated the difficulties
which gardai confronted in trying to stop these killings. "They get
absolutely no help from the people they are trying to protect and when
killings take place they get no co-operation either.

"To condemn these killings as in some way a failure on the part of the
gardai - or, indeed, the Government - flies in the face of the harsh
realities involved. It is no consolation that the vast majority of
these killings take place among members of criminal gangs," Mr Lenihan
said.

"To take that view would be to share their disregard of human life.
Tragically, it has been the case that their activities, too, have
spilled over into the law abiding community."

The truth, he said, was that the fight against those gangs was going
to be long and had to be relentless. He called on gang members who
feared for their lives to break out of the vicious circle in which
they found themselves and talk to the gardai. Mr Lenihan said he had
told the Garda Commissioner there was no limit to the funding
available for the witness protection programme.