`There is certainly an epidemic of cannabis use in Ireland at the moment," says John Lundberg, a project worker at the Merchant's Quay Project in Dublin, where every day 150 heroin addicts are given "crisis intervention" treatment in a non-judgmental fashion.
In his opinion, other, legal drugs such as alcohol and barbituates, could be considered more significant "gateway" drugs than cannabis: "and peer pressure is a gateway factor too." The effects of cannabis are relatively harmless, he says: "Unlike many other drugs, cannabis has a relaxing effect. And it is not physically addictive."
Currently, "people have to buy cannabis on the black market," says Ivana Bacik, Reid Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at TCD, who is also a practising criminal barrister. "They then come into contact with other, more dangerous drugs. This is where the myth comes in that cannabis is a gateway drug. The use of nicotine doesn't necessarily lead to the use of alcohol, but you can get both in the pub."
She believes that cannabis must be properly distinguished from other drugs: "People don't go out and rob to fund a cannabis habit, which is what they do with heroin. People don't break up families because of a cannabis habit, but they might because of alcohol."
Decriminalising cannabis would mean a better opportunity for regulation, she believes: "We're not talking a free-for-all. It would be regulated like alcohol and cigarettes, and there would be tax benefits for the government."
It would be an opportunity to provide young people with some information on the drug, which is currently not available to "the thousands who use it", notes Tim Murphy, a law lecturer in UCC and author of Rethinking The War On Drugs (1996): "We know how many units of alcohol it is safe to drink per week, but we have no guidelines for the use of cannabis."
As for the argument that cannabis is psychologically addictive, he responds: "Food, power, sex, money - most things in life are addictive. It is not the thing in itself that brings about this obsession, it is a person's interaction with it."
Paul O'Mahoney, author of Criminal Chaos (1996), argues that decriminalising cannabis would have the advantage of depriving the criminal drug barons of a major slice of their profits. In the Netherlands, cannabis is available in coffee shops, "48 per cent of which supply their own home grown cannabis, thereby taking it out of the hands of the underworld".
He rubbishes the gateway theory: "In the US, about 60 million people smoke cannabis, but only one million use opiates. 59 million haven't moved on." He says the relaxed policy towards cannabis use in the Netherlands has paid off, because the number of young people there who misuse opiates is declining, "as is drug-associated crime and AIDS".
Tim Murphy agrees that the Dutch experience of "decriminalising cannabis use in practice, but not on the law books", has been successful, and adds that the French are talking about doing the same: "In Ireland, we are creating a disrespect for the entire legal system, especially among the young, when a cannabis smoker is defined as a criminal. The greatest danger from using cannabis is that it is a criminal offence and can lead to people getting trapped in the criminal system."
Much has been made of the medical advantages of cannabis in the treatment of a variety of ailments, including MS, glaucoma, and the nausea associated with chemotherapy. It is already available on prescription in California and Arizona.
Paddy Doyle, best-known for his autobiography, The God Squad, suffers from a rare disease called Idiopathic Torsion Distonia. "It's like a combination of cerebral palsy, MS and Parkinson's," he says. "Basically it means I'm a gymnasium all to myself. I have constant spasms." Paddy takes a cocktail of about 10 different tablets every day, and for 15 years was on valium. The only real relief he has experienced from his symptoms is when he tried smoking cannabis, which he was given at parties. He told his consultant, who wrote to the then Minister for Health asking for special permission to prescribe cannabis for his patient. Michael Noonan responded in the negative.
Although there is a synthetic version of cannabis, Marinol, which is available on prescription in the US, it is not available here. Meanwhile, the British Medical Association, which recently published a report entitled Therapeutic Uses Of Cannabis, wants legal permission to research this area: "Anecdotal evidence suggests that cannabinoids could be useful for treating certain medical conditions, such as mood disorders and muscle spasticity," says a BMA spokesperson. "We think the law should permit the research."