THE Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, yesterday pleaded with people to be aware of the dangers young people face from drugs. He told the synod that drugs represented the "greatest challenge facing young people, North and South", irrespective of their backgrounds. He warned against the complacency of an "it-couldn't-happen-here" attitude.
"There are people in Ireland making a fortune out of the destruction of young minds," he said. They would answer before God or the courts but he felt members of the church had "a moral responsibility, a pastoral responsibility", for young people and families confronted "by this dreadful scourge".
He had recently had the agonising experience of working with two families where young people had gone completely off the rails because of drug addiction. It was only when you talked to people who were prisoners of drugs that you realised their devastating effects.
. The synod, at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, was picketed by five members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) yesterday morning. They carried placards which read: "Church of Ireland caters for the Orange Order", a reference to Drumcree.
