Philly McMahon says the Government needs to do more to help drug addicts and "give them a second chance".

The Dublin footballer has felt at first hand the devastation wrought by drug abuse, having lost his older brother, John (31), to heroin addiction in 2012. He has initiated the charity Half Time Talk to promote awareness and believes Ireland should consider following Portugal's lead by decriminalising drug use:

"I'm trying to get the message out there that we need change," the Ballymun Kickhams clubman told The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk. "There are a couple of different countries doing different things and we're still waiting for things to happen.

"Why have we waited until we have the third highest drug overdose rate in Europe, where one person dies every day from a drug overdose?

"Portugal has decriminalised drugs and it's been a massive success. In Belgium, they've legalised drugs. I'm not saying we should do one or the other but we should look at it.

"In Portugal, if someone is caught with a small amount of personal-use drugs, they will be put in front of a judge, a doctor and a psychiatrist and the punishment will be a recovery programme.

"We need to give them a way back in. We need to give them a second chance and that's what's missing at the moment."

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