Drugs and crime in Ireland

The link between drugs and crime in Ireland exists simply by virtue of prevailing legislation which defines as criminal offences the importation, manufacture, trade in and possession, other than by prescription, of most psychoactive substances. The principal criminal legislative framework is laid out in the Misuse of Drugs Acts (MDA) 1977 and 1984 and the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1988. Offences committed under this legislation are reported in the annual reports of An Garda Síochána. However, most Irish drug users who receive sentences of imprisonment, for example, are punished, not for drug offences per se, but for offences committed as a consequence of their drug use, such as theft from the person, burglary, larceny and prostitution. Research studies have identified this clear link between some forms of illicit drug use and crime findings which are consistent throughout criminological literature. [...] The issues which arise here, specifically in relation to drug-related crime, will be considered in Section 3. In Section 4, we analyse trends in drug offences since 1983. [...] The annual Garda reports include information on crimes recorded by the gardaí and those in which criminal proceedings were taken. The reports include a specific chapter on drug offences, giving the number of such offences in which proceedings were taken, by Garda division and by drug type; the number, volume and types of drug seized ; and the number, age and gender of persons charged, as well as the nature of the offence. The reports also include information on drug offences which became known to the customs service and other agencies. Drug seizures carried out by the customs service are also recorded in the annual reports of the Revenue Commissioners. In Section 5 we look at an area which is gaining increased attention in Ireland and throughout the European Union the link between illicit drug use and driving offences. Although the link between drug use, addiction and crime has been established by international and Irish research, identifying the precise causative connection between drugs and crime has been a primary preoccupation of many writers in this area. For the purpose of this Overview, we will review the available research evidence using four explanatory causal models: the psycho-pharmacological model (Section 6) which identifies the drugs-crime link as arising as a result of the intoxicating effect of the of the drugs themselves; the economic-compulsive model (Section 7) which assumes that drug users need to generate illicit income from crime to support their drug habit; the systemic model (Section 8) which explains drug-related crime as resulting from activities associated with the illegal drug market, and the common-cause model (Section 9) which suggests that there is no direct causal link between drugs and crime but that both drug use and offending behaviour are related to other factors, including socio-economic deprivation.