The Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Mr Noel Ahern, has rejected as unreliable and inaccurate a UN report which shows Ireland having the highest levels of cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamine use in western Europe.
Mr Ahern, Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, said that the figures did not come from a comprehensive national population survey "and thus cannot be regarded as authoritative or an accurate indication of the prevalence of drug use in Ireland."
The UN report, Global Illicit Trends 2002, estimated that 9.4 per cent of Irish people aged 15 and over took cannabis at least once a year - ranking the country joint-first along with the UK in terms of prevalence on a list of 23 western European countries.
Ireland was ranked ahead of all countries, including the UK, for use of amphetamine - otherwise known as speed - and ecstasy, with prevalence rates of 2.4 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.
On cocaine, Ireland ranked third, with a prevalence rate of 1.3 per cent. On opiates, including heroin, it ranked joint tenth, with a prevalence rate of 0.3 per cent.
The Labour Party's spokesman on education and science, Mr Joe Costello, said that the figures illustrated a "shocking increase" in drug use in recent times. He described Government policy as "lethargic", adding that the National Drugs Strategy "exists only in theory".
In response, Mr Ahern said that the figures predated the strategy, which was launched last year. Among the initiatives planned under it, he said, was a national awareness campaign on the dangers of drugs, to be launched in the autumn.
Mr Ahern added that the Government, through the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, would shortly commission an all-Ireland population study on drugs. "The results of this questionnaire, combined with the new prevalence figures on heroin use, which will be available later this year, will give a much more accurate picture," he said.
The UN report, published by the International Drug Control Programme, claimed that Ireland had one of the highest drug abuse rates among 15/16-year-olds in Europe. The UK, France and the Czech Republic were ranked highest, with prevalence rates in that age category of 35 to 36 per cent. Ireland came next, along with Spain, Luxembourg and Switzerland, in having a prevalence rate of "more than 30 per cent".
On heroin, the report found that Ireland had a "stable" level of use in 2000. This contrasted with a number of other European countries which showed a decline in heroin use in that year.
The report said that cocaine use across Europe was now far more widespread than 20 years ago and "far more widespread than use of opiates, even though the latter still account for the bulk of treatment demand". It noted a growing trend towards "poly-drug abuse", citing reports "of people on methadone maintenance programmes using cocaine to get their 'kick'."
