Madam, - I would like to commend your comprehensive and balanced coverage of our recent drugs awareness campaign. The drugs issue is a continuing crisis for many communities in Dublin and elsewhere and I was particularly pleased that Kitty Holland focussed on the issue of addiction policy in her piece of April 25th. Merchants Quay Ireland has long argued that we need to re-examine our approach to drug treatment in Ireland and it is gratifying to see the issue covered in a serious and professional manner on your pages.
In the course of an interview I did with Kitty Holland last week, it seems she may have got the impression that I believed there were perhaps 30,000 heroin users in Dublin. While I would be the first to admit that Ireland has a very serious heroin problem, I do not believe there are as many as 30,000 heroin users in the city and I would not like to be seen as sensationalising the problem.
When discussing the extent of drug use, I mentioned the Eastern Regional Health Authority's estimate that there are 15,000 heroin users in Ireland as well as international research that indicates that if you have a well-developed network of drug treatment services in place you would expect to have 50 per cent of drug users engaged in treatment.
From this, I think Ms Holland assumed that if I was saying that the ERHA knows of 15,000 drug users, then this is at best 50 per cent of the total and therefore that I was suggesting there are in fact 30,000 heroin users in Ireland. But as the ERHA figure is an estimate of the total number of heroin users, rather than just heroin users in treatment, this does not logically follow. Given that there were about 6,500 drug users in treatment in Dublin last year, the EHRA estimate of a total of 15,000 is reasonable and we have cited that figure in a number of our recent press releases and reports.
We have seen 10,800 individual heroin users at Merchants Quay Ireland over the past six years. Last year alone, we saw more than 4,000 heroin users. The fact that thousands of young Dubliners are dependent on opiates represents a major crisis for this city. Arguments about the exact numbers are less important than the debate on policy and practical responses to this crisis and I would again thank Ms Holland and The Irish Times for covering this important issue. - Yours, etc.,
TONY GEOGHEGAN, Merchants Quay Ireland, Dublin 2.