Used syringes found in local estate

FRESH calls have been made for legalized safe injecting centres in Dublin after the discovery of discarded syringes and drug paraphernalia in a Northside estate.

The syringes were found in Drumalee Estate, off North Circular Road by local residents who contacted local Dublin City councillor, Janice Boylan (SF).

Cllr Boylan says it’s not the first time she’s been notified about the issue.

“I was shocked to be sent a picture illustrating this problem,

? she said.

“Every second day I am contacted by residents reporting discarded drug paraphernalia in our neighbourhoods, in streets where our children play and try have a normal childhood.

?

Cllr Boylan contacted council officials who responded quickly to remove the dangerous needles.

“I cannot begin to stress the level of anger from residents that drug users would discard such harmful and life threatening objects where children play,

? she said.

“I have always supported the use of safe injection centres and they have proven themselves to work in places like Australia.

“These centres will help to significantly reduce the amount of drug paraphernalia discarded on our streets and neighbourhoods.

“They will also help by educating drug users to discard of their needles safely.

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Meanwhile statistics obtained by Dublin North East TD, Tommy Broughan (Ind), show almost two thirds of Irish addicts on methadone programmes are from Dublin, Kildare and West Wicklow.

According to the figures provided by the HSE, these areas equate to 64 per cent of the total number of 9,866.

In the Dublin North, North Central and North West areas there’s 3,353 addicts on official methadone programmes.

The latest annual figures from the National Drug-Related Deaths Index indicate that there were 633 drug related deaths in 2012.

A total of 350 of these deaths were due to the toxic effects of drugs. Methadone was implicated in 86 poisonings in 2012 and the majority of the deaths (87 per cent) where methadone was implicated were polydrug poisonings.

Deputy Broughan said:

“Hopefully with the recent appointment of a Minister of State with responsibility for drugs we will start to see a difference in our worsening drugs crisis.

“Projects such as Ana Liffey Drug Project and Merchants Quay Ireland have long been calling for action on the issue and we can see from these figures that our dependence on methadone as a means of treating addiction is growing.

“We need real alternatives, appropriate supports and timely access to detox rehabilitation centres.

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