Law Expert Calls Drugs 'A Human Right'

In a new book, one of Ireland's top law experts has argued it is a "human right" to take currently illegal drugs.

Paul O'Mahony said drugs should be legalised because there is a "human right" to use them and said the war on drugs had "failed catastrophically" in Ireland, and across the world.

The Trinity College psychologist and criminologist said it was a "scandal" that enormous resources were being used to enforce prohibition.

He said this policy had not only failed to lower drug use, but may have contributed to its increase.

The book has been described as a challenge to the global dominance of prohibitionist ideas, which are seen as an emotionally driven and irrational, flying in the face of overwhelming evidence that prohibition does more harm than good.

In his book, The Irish War on Drugs, the Seductive Folly of Prohibition, Mr O'Mahony said the campaign for abolition needed a clear rallying idea, which would cut through complex arguments.

"Only the concept of a human right to use drugs can fulfil this role of providing a meaningful, inspiring and unifying idea which can guide the transition to a fully non-prohibitionist system."

He said there was a human right to use drugs, so long as it did not negatively impact on the rights of others.

(DW)