Consultation for new drugs strategy gets underway

A NEW National Drugs Strategy is being developed by the Department of Health to help determine how best to deal with the problem of addiction in Irish society.

A public consultation is currently underway from now until October 18 to help determine the best way to deal with the drugs issue in Ireland, and in particular Dublin’s inner cities.

The nature of drug use in the city has developed over the years from the scourge of widespread heroin abuse in the ‘80s to an increase in poly-drug use in more recent times.

The rise in poly-drug use in Dublin is of great concern to the Director of Northside based Ana Liffey Drug Project, Tony Duffin, who says Dublin’s drug use problem is just as significant as it has ever been, but it’s taken a different form in recent years.

“We no longer have just a heroin problem but, we have a poly drug use problem,” he told Northside People.

“We have people who are taking multiple drugs, different types of drugs and copious amounts of them as well. It’s a serious situation on the streets and not just the capital, but right across Ireland as well.”

Duffin, who has been working with the addiction service since November 2005, believes that it is “absolutely paramount” that supervising facilities for injecting drug users and accessible residential treatment facilities are included in the new drug strategy.

“We work with people who are actively addicted, who are extremely vulnerable, who are poly drug users and they may have psychological or mental health problems, they may be homeless, so they’re probably some of the most vulnerable people in the State,” Duffin added.

“The current residential regime really excludes the people that we work with. When you try to access residential beds for people, detoxing particularly, our client group simply can’t meet the criteria needed to get one.

“Our clients are on the streets, they’re living rough, they’re living under bridges or parks, they simply can’t do that and they can’t access the beds.

“We want to see services that take in people based on their needs; we want to see those types of services in Ireland.”

Dublin West Fianna Fáil TD and Spokesperson on Community and the National Drugs Strategy, Jack Chambers, says that awareness and prevention must be at the core of the new strategy to allow services combat the shifts in patterns of drug use.

“Public consultation gives people an important opportunity to voice their concerns with drug use and the rise in poly drug use in Ireland,” he said.

“It is important that there is significant engagement with organisations, service users, parents, families and young people nationwide.

“Not everyone is directly affected by problem drug use but we must be proactive and aggressive in tackling drug related issues. Any effective solution needs to be collaborative, multifaceted and inter-departmental.”

At the end of the public consultation process in October, the Department of Health will gather the views of various professionals and services and compile a report. These will then be provided to the National Drugs Strategy Steering Committee to help inform the Government’s new strategy on drug treatment from 2017 onwards.