Conference to discuss legalisation of cannabis in Ireland
A conference on the legalisation and regulation of drugs in Ireland will take place in DCU today.
The event comes one month after students in NUI Galway passed a referendum calling for the students union to support the legalisation and sale of cannabis to people over 18.
One of the speakers at today's conference is Dr John Collins, coordinator of the LSE IDEAS International Drug Policy Project.
He said that a blanket ban on drugs is not effective and many countries are introducing some drug legalisation.
"I think at the international level, yes, we have seen cannabis legalisation," he said.
"Four states in the united States have legalised it, Washington D.C, the country of Uruguay, and then you've a lot of other countries that have done grey-area legalisation model - so that is certainly something that is underway.
"I think in the case of cannabis, it's a positive thing that you are seeing these regulatory experimentation models, because the prohibitionist model has not done what it was supposed to do, and it has created a lot of collateral consequences for countries."
