A liberalising of drug laws will lead to more widespread drug use and will not help combat stigma around the issue.
The Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use is expected to agree on recommendations to liberalise laws around possession of common illegal drugs.
There has been opposition to liberalisation from the Gardaí, the Chief Medical Officer and some medics.
Newstalk Breakfast host Ciara Kelly said she understands the rationale behind liberalising drug laws – but said she does not believe it will work.
"There are individuals, families and communities that have been ravaged by addiction; and this is an attempt to help those groups and those people," she said.
"It will increase the spread of drugs.
"We already have legal drugs in this country - we have alcohol - and I'm not sure the fact that you're addicted to alcohol and it's legal that you feel much better off when your life is torn asunder by it.
"The problem is, this is going to create more widespread drug use, and the pockets of problems with addiction are going to spread throughout the country."
'Stigma is a side issue'
Ciara said tackling the stigma around drug use is not the issue.
"The issue isn't the stigma... the issue is health problems, the issue is people's lives destroyed, people not able to parent their kids, people not able to function," she said.
"Stigma is a side issue altogether.
"If we're focusing on controlling stigma when we should be focusing on big-ticket items like health and families ravaged, I think we're missing the bloody point.
"If you bring it in, you will not put this genie back in the bottle," she added.
'I really worry about that'
Presenter Shane Coleman said he is concerned about the prospect.
"Liberalisation makes me worried because the concern I think is that is normalises drug use," he said.
"There's still a little bit of a stigma about drug use.
"I just think if you legalise cannabis, and we know there's serious concerns among medics about the use of cannabis and mental health.
"If we were to liberalise that, or liberalise the use of cocaine, I really worry about that.
"I look at two countries in particular, the US and Portugal, who have gone down this road.
The US definitely seems to me it has normalised drug use among regular punters.
"Everyone raves about the system in Portugal; my only experience of it is... you cannot walk down the street in Lisbon without being offered cocaine literally every hundred yards," he added.
