I was first caught with some hash (€15 euros worth) in 2007 when I was 17 years of age. This lead to many years of being targeted by Gardaí as I was now known as a “drug user” and therefor a valid target for a guard wanting to make a name for themselves in the garda force by racking up big drug conviction numbers. Every guard who stopped and searched me for drugs, finding some personal amounts of cannabis or hash offered me the opportunity to tell them who my dealer was. They would say “this will all go away if you just tell us where you got it from”.

After numerous court appearances I grew tired of the games the justice system were playing. I had protested for reform, wrote letters to politicians for reform and in court defending myself for about the 4th or 5th time I told the judge I seen no harm in what I was doing and felt that criminalising me for such was a violation of my rights. The judge then told me that court isn’t the place to discuss the law and gave me the option of a €250 involuntary donation to the charity box or a €125 fine with a conviction. I believe it was at this case I decided I wasn’t paying any more involuntary donations to the court charity box or honoring any summons to court any longer as I felt the whole thing was rigged.

This lead to a bench warrant being issues and a 3 year period of Gardaí knocking at the family home to arrest me. They eventually caught up with me and brought me to Mayfield garda station and held me overnight for court the next morning. That was a rough night where at my weakest I found myself trying to squeeze the life out of my body with my own socks thinking I’ll spite those guards by dying in their custody while being held for being a an illegal “drug user”. Thankfully I found strength in thoughts of my family and kids at home and got myself into a slightly healthier frame of mind.

The next day I was brought to court where I was given a 2 month prison sentence for non payment of fines, not showing up in court and for the possession of Cannabis. I was then brought to Cork Prison where at the time prisoners were having to shit and piss in pots in their cells once locked in for the evening. I struggled with being in prison as all I wanted was to be home with my family where I belonged as I knew they were also missing me being there.

Upon my release I made it my business to contact as many local politicians that I could to highlight my experience and the harms of criminalising a person for person drug use has on the individual and their family and friends. I used facebook and posted to the pages of a number of local councilors, 2 replied in a somewhat positive way, many just ignored the post but it was Cllr. Joe Kavanagh who decided it was ok to mock a person who was looking for help after a pretty traumatic experience. Below you can see an image of the main body of the post I made on a number of cllr’s facebook pages.

As you can see in the image above I put forward a genuine question in a civil way, even thanking the reader for taking the time to read the post. People like TD Padraig O Sullivan and Mick Finn were able to respond also in a civil manner with Padraig even going as far as to say that an “independent commission” be established to explore the pro’s and con’s of a partial or full relaxation of our drug laws. (You can read more of Padraig’s reply in the image below)

I opened each post with a unique opener for each Cllr, for Joe Kavangh (seen below) I congratulated him on his successful election and then went on to ask if he agreed with the criminalisation of people like myself for the personal use of Cannabis.

Unfortunately Joe never replied to my enquiry and instead I was insulted by a number of Joe’s supporters. This wasn’t a big issue for me as I was pretty use to it at this stage after a long online battle over in the comment section of Padraig O Sullivans post. I didn’t take any of the comments to heart really until cllr. Joe Kavanagh decided to chime in but not to answer my enquiry by to support a man who was mocking me for having a “stupid therory” and accusing me being “looking for a reaction” and to “tar” cllr. Joe Kavanagh’s reputation.

While Terry is entitled to his opinion that my theory was stupid, might I add a theory might that is now supported by a recent publication from a Joint Justice committee on criminal sanctions for personal drug use, he could of at least pointed out what he believed was stupid about it. Its kind of ironic then that while Terry was concerned about me wanting to tar Joe’s reputation, it was him in the end that led to Joe’s reputation being tarred as Joe came on to comment in support of Terry. My question to Joe wasn’t misplaced either as Joe Kavanagh was a sitting member of the Cork Local drug and Alcohol task force.

To have Joe support Terry’s comment as he did unfortunately hurt me as Joe is an elected public official and seeing his support for Terry made me lose hope. It made me question my worth as a person , having feelings of worthlessness at a time where I was already in a vulnerable state was dangerous. Thankfully again I managed to keep my head up and continue despite the prejudice and discrimination I faced.

Joe later went on to become the lord mayor of Cork and while opening the LGBTI+ Awareness Week he stated that there was a desire for our society to be “more inclusive” and that he was “committed to challenging prejudice and discrimination” (except his own when it comes to drug users apparently).

I would hope that if Cllr. Joe Kavanagh is reading this he might reach out to me so we can have the conversation I was looking to have with him almost 9 years ago or if any of his supporters are reading this that ye might encourage Joe to do the same. His last reply to me was to stop communicating with him on his social media. I believe this was because I was making sense in what I was saying and Joe was worried he might lose support of voters against prejudice and discrimination. My theory couldn’t of been stupid as Terry suggested as its now a Theory supported by Tánaiste Micheál Martin who has signaled support for a decriminalisation of drugs, saying he backs calls from his own TDs for a health-led approach to drug use.