Crumlin "faces heroin problem"

CRUMLIN is facing a major increase in the availability of heroin as dealers forced out of the inner city take up residence in the area, a public meeting heard last night. But Ms Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Crumlin Community Addiction Response Project (CCARP), said the community should leave pushers to the gardai and concentrate on helping drug users instead.

The project, set up in June, is negotiating with the Eastern Health Board to establish a treatment and counselling service for heroin addicts in the area. Ms Collins said her brother, a heroin addict, died recently while waiting to get on a treatment programme. The CCARP committee is now seeking a premises.