‘We were educated to be ashamed’: Dublin GAA player Philly McMahon tells Citizens’ Assembly about his late brother’s heroin addiction

The lived experience of people who have had to deal with the impact of illicit drugs in their personal and professional lives was front and centre on the first day of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use in the Grand Hotel in Malahide.

The stigma and shame attached to drug usage and addiction and its criminalisation as well as the disproportionate impact drugs and the consequences of dependency on them have on people from lower socio-economic groups was highlighted by speakers who addressed the gathering on Saturday.

The chairman Paul Reid told the 99 members of the assembly that they were taking part in a “momentous discussion” and “part of something that has the potential to be really very significant”.

Over two days this weekend and at subsequent gatherings up to the end of October, the assembly will hear from a wide range of national and international speakers on the various and complex issues surrounding drugs use and drugs policy.

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The assembly was established following a resolution of the Dáil in February has been asked to consider the legislative, policy, and operational changes the State could make to significantly reduce the harmful impacts of illicit drugs on individuals, families, communities and wider society and to report to the Houses of the Oireachtas this year.

Former Dublin GAA star Philly McMahon is involved in the Assembly in an advisory role and spoke of how his older brother John died in 2012 following a struggle with heroin addiction that stretched back over a decade.

Mr McMahon was part of a panel discussion hosted by journalist and author Dearbhail McDonald on Saturday afternoon and he told delegates that his family had only discovered the link between his brother’s serious addiction issues and his significant mental health issues many years after the problems first developed.

“It wasn’t until John was in his late 20s, that we discovered [he] had schizophrenia. So for a long time, based off our education as a family, and the wider social education was based off it being incriminating to take drugs. We were educated to be ashamed, to be embarrassed and that stigmatisation was crucial in all of that education.”

He said that had his family known when his brother was in his teens what they knew when he was in his 20s “we definitely would have treated it as a mental health issue and we would have looked at the underlying issue.

“And we would have definitely, I think, you know, we would have, we would have dealt with it a little bit differently.”

He said that when someone was struggling with addiction their families struggled too.

“When you have a loved one that struggles with addiction, your family goes through the addiction side of it, it goes through the recovery side of it and probably the most difficult part is the bereavement part of it.”

Andy O’Hara of drug users’ group Uisce pointed to a “hierarchy” which saw many people excluded from the discussion about how to manage illicit drugs and what policies to adopt.

“The message is that if you used to use drugs, you can have a voice and if you’re still using drugs you can’t we’ll still stigmatise you And what do people tell us? They tell us they want to live, they tell us they want to realise their full potential. They tell us they want to have a stake in society.”

He said people who used and are using drugs “are dehumanised or stigmatised or criminalised and are written off. When we’re talking about people who use drugs, it’s really the people who’ve been most impacted, who have the most knowledge, but the people who are excluded the most and they’ve been excluded from most their lives.”

He said the Assembly was about looking at drugs and drug policy and looking at the causes and the consequences and the responses. We set up workshops to explore the issue and they have a really strong analysis, what’s going on ... They are actually part of the solution, they need to be able to be part of the process of driving the change.”

The chief executive of Coolmine Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centre Pauline McKeowan also pointed to the “stigma and shame” as having a “significant role, because it’s discrimination [and] based on where you’re from, based on your experiences, you may not get offered the same service, or you may not be able to access the same services.”

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Earlier, in a video address to the assembly, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar noted that “far too many people are grappling with drug dependency or drug addiction. Far too many families have lost loved ones due to an overdose. Far too many communities have been living in fear of those who supplied drugs in towns and villages across our country.”

He said the State had to “find better ways to deal with the problems arising from the use of illegal drugs”.

He told the delegates that they would hear about the lived experiences of individuals and other countries “Please inquire about the experiences of legalisation and decriminalisation in places like the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal and elsewhere [and ask], has it really made things better or worse or has it made a difference at all. Whatever happens, don’t just believe whatever you’re told, be sure to ask questions, and interrogate the answers.”

He said citizens’ assemblies served to enhance Ireland’s democratic system and noted that previous assemblies have “proven their worth in finding solutions to difficult issues for marriage equality, and the Eighth Amendment to climate action and gender equality. And I expect this assembly will be no different.”