Former HSE CEO Paul Reid has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Citizens Assembly on drug use.
The Assembly will make recommendations on the legislative, policy and operational changes the state could make to drug policy.
There will be 99 members of the public selected to take part in the Assembly.
A campaign to randomly select the members of the public to join the Citizens' Assembly will begin this week.
In a Red C poll for the Business Post this week, 50% of people here said they would support the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use.
The Junior Minister with responsibility for Drug Policy, Hildegard Naughton said many different people from different backgrounds will be asked to join:
"The Taoiseach will be writing out to over 20,000 households across the country asking people if they would be interested in coming forward.
"So there will be that regional balance, which is really important if we're going to get a clear and honest picture of drug use and how we deal with it in Ireland.
"We need to be hearing from every geographical, and regional part of our country, and age groups, looking at genders and looking at different profiles."
