Sinn Féin is “inevitably headed” towards advocating for cannabis decriminalisation for young people, according to Senator Fintan Warfield, who today said he hopes his party will argue for decriminalisation at the next general election.
Speaking at a press conference in Trinity, Warfield admitted that decriminalisation “doesn’t solve a lot of the problems”, but insisted that a “harm-reduction approach” was the best way to keep young people out of the criminal system.
Warfield said he had done work in the past in order to make drug-testing services available to people at festivals in order to ensure the safety of the drugs.
Warfield, who was interviewed by The University Times in 2017, also discussed the housing crisis and trans rights issues during a wide-ranging address.
After tweeting his support for a boycott of Eurovision 2019, which he said “whitewashes apartheid”, Warfield was asked to clarify his views the Israel/Palestine conflict. He said Ireland’s policy of neutrality “doesn’t exclude us from the UN”.
Warfield condemned the “horrific” shooting of 63 people in Gaza just days after Israel won last year’s Eurovision. Artists in Palestine, he said, had called for the boycott.
Warfield was in Trinity for a press conference organised by The University Times as part of the paper’s journalism access programme for transition-year students.
He also called on the government to do more for the rights of trans people in Ireland.
As part of The University Times‘s programme, which is run in collaboration with the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), dozens of students in transition year spend a week in Trinity learning about the importance of journalism in the 21st century.
Noah Geraghty also contributed reporting to this piece.
This piece was written by secondary students taking part in The University Times’s journalism access programme.
