An overhaul of the Republic’s approach to drug use could be on the way after an Oireachtas committee recommended the possession of all drugs for personal use should be decriminalised.Members of the Joint Committee on Drugs Use have recommended the legislation that lists drug possession as an offence – Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 – be repealed.The committee on Wednesday published its final report, which included 161 recommendations aimed at moving Ireland towards a health-led, rather than criminal, approach to drug possession.The committee was established to respond to 36 recommendations made by the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use in 2024. The assembly – comprised of 99 citizens and chaired by Paul Reid, former chief executive of the HSE – also recommended the State take a comprehensive health-led policy response to drug use.Speaking at the unveiling of the assembly’s report in January 2024, Reid said the State had a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to help people impacted by addiction.Gary Gannon, chair of the Oireachtas drugs use committee, on Wednesday said cross-party members of the group “endorse the direction the assembly set”. The Social Democrats TD said the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use “is not a softening of the State’s resolve on drugs; it is a more honest and more effective use of it”. Gannon said criminalising people for their own drug use “has not reduced harm” and that “a different approach is both possible and overdue”.In its report, the committee makes 161 recommendations including the need to introduce more family and community supports, address intergenerational trauma and introduce an overhaul of legal and policy issues.The committee recommends the decriminalisation of possession for personal use should apply equally to all illicit drugs. People found in possession of drugs “should be offered all supports and health resources that are required”, the report said.The committee is calling for members of An Garda Síochána and local authorities to receive trauma and harm-reduction training to “inform their work with individuals and communities affected by drug misuse and addiction”.The report also includes a number of recommendations around nitrous oxide – a gas used in medical and catering settings that has been increasingly used recreationally. The committee wants “a prohibition on the sale of large-volume nitrous oxide canisters intended for recreational use and a social media advertisement ban on such products”. It also recommends “the introduction of a licensing or invoice-only purchasing system for nitrous oxide products intended for legitimate catering and industrial use”. During its work, the committee heard from policymakers, legal and medical experts, service providers, academics and community organisations, as well as people with experience of drug use and recovery.“Their testimony grounded our deliberations in reality,” Gannon said.Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, vice-chair of the committee, said the nature of drug use in Ireland “has changed completely” in the last 20 years. “Where once it was often associated with heroin use in disadvantaged and marginalised communities, today we are dealing with widespread poly-substance use. Cocaine, cannabis, prescription drugs and new substances are now present in every county – in villages, towns and cities alike.”Fitzpatrick said addiction can no longer “be seen as affecting ‘other communities’; it is present across Irish society”. The Fianna Fáil Senator said evidence shows a largely criminal justice-focused approach “has not reduced harm” and, in some cases, “has added to stigma and exclusion”.