Sir, - Your recent editorial, "Drugs and Young People" emphasised the importance of the European School Survey Project (ESPAD) in validating the findings of those of us who have been involved in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse among teenagers and adolescents in this country.
The report confirms that we have a medico-social problem of epidemic proportions in the abuse of mood-changing drugs from legal and illegal sources. Anational response should, as you recommend, study the causes of this. But it is equally important that the very destructive medicosocial consequences of this epidemic should be addressed.
We are fortunate to have prevention programmes being developed in our schools. But free-standing prevention programmes in secondary schools can have little impact on pupils where the use of alcohol is already established. We know, for example, that of the 400,000 in the 12-18 age group in this country, over 75 per cent are underage drinkers.
Prevention programmes in schools need to be supplemented by early intervention and treatment in drug-free counselling programmes throughout our communities. The 16-year-old multi-drug abuser identified in the ESPAD survey can be treated much more successfully than his/her adult counterpart. This epidemic of teenage substance abuse has spread so rapidly over the past five years throughout rural Ireland that our response has been too little and too late. But it is still not too late to stem the rising tide in the vast majority of our communities by the appropriate deployment of services in prevention, intervention and treatment for teenagers. - Yours, etc.,
Carrigaline, Co Cork