Pilot projects to tackle cocaine use were announced yesterday following a number of reports which indicate that abuse of the drug has increased substantially in recent years.
The four projects are aimed at different types of drug users in Dublin's inner city and Tallaght who have cocaine-related drug problems.
The groups targeted in the pilot projects include women drug users in Dublin's city centre; people with multiple-drug problems in the south inner city; intravenous cocaine users in the north inner city and those who have developed problems following recreational use of the drug in the Tallaght area.
Along with the four treatment projects, the initiative will also include training for frontline staff and the production of educational material outlining the dangers associated with cocaine use.
Confirming that cocaine use in Ireland is rising, the first all-Ireland drug prevalence survey last year found 10.5 per cent of 15- to 34-year-olds in the south Dublin and Wicklow area had tried cocaine. This compared to the highest national EU rate of 8.7 per cent for cocaine prevalence.
The Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Mr Noel Ahern, yesterday said the projects had been boosted by an 18 per cent increase in funding for anti-drugs measures. However, the pilot projects came in for criticism from the Labour Party's spokesman on justice, Mr Joe Costello, who said they were too little and too late.
"Cocaine is rapidly replacing heroin as the main hard drug in Ireland but the Government's attitude has been laissez faire at best," he said.
"The budget of just over €30 million provided to anti-drugs initiatives for 2005 is entirely insufficient to combat the problem, especially in respect of cocaine."
Mr Ahern, however, said funding had increased dramatically for the area in recent years and a range of initiatives were up and running in areas with acute drug problems.
"In 2005, I believe we will consolidate and build on that investment and continue to tackle the drug problem in the most comprehensive way possible," he said.
The four pilot projects will differ in their approaches to dealing with cocaine abuse. They will include:
Diversionary therapies aimed at mainly intravenous cocaine in the north inner city area.
Group drug counselling, individual drug counselling, cognitive behaviour therapy targeted at multi-drug users in the south inner city
A peer support network model for female drug users in Dublin city centre
A pilot project for cocaine users in the Tallaght area of south Dublin from people who started off using the drug on a recreational basis. This project will seek to record the social, health and personal changes of cocaine users involved.
In a statement, Mr Ahern said studies had documented positive change among people with cocaine problems who participated in well-designed and theoretically-based interventions.
In other measures due to occur over the next 12 months, the Minister said funding will be used to implement action plans from the Regional Drugs Task Forces outside the Dublin area.
There will also be another round of capital funding under the Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund in areas of high drug use. This funding will result in more community/youth facilities.
Administrative support for the task forces will be enhanced to help improve their delivery capacity at a local level, the Minister said.