Taoiseach admits drug abuse is widespread

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has acknowledged that drug abuse and incidents such as what happened last weekend in Waterford were becoming too familiar in cities, towns and villages. Mr Ahern had previously vigorously rejected Opposition claims in the Dáil that drug abuse was a major problem in every small town in the State.

However, during a Dáil debate yesterday on drugs and the national drugs strategy Mr Ahern said: "I accept that it is a problem in cities, towns and even villages throughout the country".

The physical and mental health risks of trying illegal drugs "are so high that an experiment need only go wrong once for serious, and sometimes fatal, consequences to arise for the drug misuser, their families and friends", the Taoiseach said.

Mr Ahern insisted that illegal drugs were illegal because "they are toxic. Illegal drugs are a serious health risk and must remain illegal for that reason."

He said that while much remained to be done, the Government "can only do so much. Individual citizens must see that there are serious physical and mental health risks attached to using illegal drugs."

Earlier, opening the debate Minister of State for drugs Pat Carey said a "new national drugs awareness campaign, focused on cocaine and utilising modern media is being prepared".

Tremendous achievements had been made under the young people's facilities and services fund and treatment facilities had increased significantly.

"Approximately 8,500 people are now in receipt of methadone, and a range of services are being provided across the statutory, voluntary and community sectors for various types of problem drug use."

In the new strategy there would be a "substantially increased focus on rehabilitation" and the Government was "endeavouring to tackle the cocaine problem in a proactive way".

Labour spokesman Jack Wall highlighted a lack of follow through in programmes, citing a secondary school teacher who took a course on drug awareness and "was amazed at what was happening".

However, "while he was grateful to know what was occurring, the follow-up was terrible because he had heard nothing since".

Sinn Féin spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh warned that "the new strategy needs to be imaginative and far-sighted", realistic and effective. "The evidence of failure of the current strategy can be found in the fact that last year 1,700 new heroin injectors presented to the Merchants Quay Ireland service.

"This is an indictment of our failure and society's failure to address this major drug problem."

He said that "if the Government approached the heroin and other drugs crisis in the same way it approached foot-and-mouth disease, our society would be better off".

Tony Gregory (Ind Dublin Central) said that in Dublin's north inner city in the last couple of months heroin seizures were reported everywhere despite "the hype we hear about cocaine as being the new drug".

There was no doubt that heroin is rooted in social disadvantage and in marginalised vulnerable young people and "it is a great shame on all of us that we have failed to use the affluence that has been available to this country over the past 10 or 15 years to make any radical inroads into that impoverishment from which so many young people still suffer in some of the areas of our city and country".