Sir, - In his response to Breda O'Brien's excellent article on "Moving beyond maintenance" (Opinion, June 24th), Dr Kieran Harkin (June 29th) makes a number of surprising claims. He states that, once opiate addiction is established, permanent and irreversible neuro-physiological damage occurs, rendering the person prone to relapse indefinitely. He doesn't add how this damage is assessed or who reaches this conclusion while, presumably, the addicted young person is still abusing drugs. We can presume that he means a doctor, who subscribes to this theory, makes this devastating diagnosis. [continues 341 words]
The use of "scare tactics" in public information campaigns on drugs is ineffective and possibly counter-productive, the National Youth Council of Ireland has said. In a submission to the National Drugs Strategy review committee, the youth organisation said such tactics did not "respect their target audience and have been shown to be at such variance to young people's own knowledge and experience as to render them useless". The group made a number of other recommendations for consideration in the drafting of the next Government drugs strategy. [continues 181 words]
COLOMBIA: The Colombian government came to the gathering of 27 nations and several international agencies in Madrid last Friday hoping to raise $1 billion for Plan Colombia, President Andres Pastrana's blueprint intended to bolster Colombian peace and counter-narcotics efforts. But when the meeting ended, only Spain, Norway and Japan had committed funds for a plan that the majority of Colombia's European allies, together with Canada, find dangerously incoherent. The Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Corporation for Development also jointly contributed credits worth $300 million. With an additional offer of $131 million from the United Nations, the government received a total of $621 million. [continues 307 words]
More than one prisoner in five began to inject drugs while in prison, according to a recently published study. Drug use and infection with hepatitis C are endemic among the State's prisoners, the study carried out by researchers at the department of community health and general practice in Trinity College Dublin reveals. The most alarming statistic from a public health perspective is that 21 per cent of prisoners first injected drugs in prison. And 71 per cent of respondents reported sharing needles in prison. [continues 149 words]
In Madrid on Friday, European Commission officials and EU ministers will discuss their response to "Plan Colombia", an ambitious programme, backed by both Washington and Colombia's President Pastrana, which aims to eradicate the country's twin plagues of drugs and violence writes Ana Carrigan COLOMBIA: Its critics fear, however, the plan may have the reverse effect. The EU is being asked to contribute $1 billion towards pacification projects. Last week, the US Senate voted through $1.3 billion in military aid for the counternarcotics side of the programme. [continues 411 words]
A renewed appeal has been made for heroin users to be vigilant following the announcement yesterday of three new cases of the illness which has led to eight deaths in Dublin in recent weeks. The latest victims of the unidentified illness, believed to be caused by injecting contaminated heroin, are recovering in a Dublin hospital. They bring to 22 the number of cases confirmed in the eastern region to date. The victims, two males and one female, reported the onset of the illness in mid-June - a month after the first infected heroin users were admitted to hospital. [continues 207 words]
The abuse of alcohol is so widespread among young people that it is "commonplace" for pupils to miss school completely or fail to participate in class because of hangovers, second-level teachers have claimed. The teachers say that while heroin abuse is confined to a small number of young people, the abuse of alcohol, cannabis and ecstasy is common throughout the State. The teachers call for a shift in Government policy from concentrating almost exclusively on deprived urban areas where heroin is prevalent to also tackling the problem of soft drugs and alcohol in every "town and village across the country". [continues 310 words]
A full-time Garda drug squad has been set up in the Westmeath/Longford Garda division, based in Athlone. The new squad is part of the response to a report on the priorities the public wants placed on crime. Last week, ecstasy and other drugs with a street value of pounds 4,000 were uncovered in Athlone, and in a follow-up operation in two licensed premises more drugs were seized. While the authorities would not give any operational details of the squad, it is understood that eight officers will work full time on drug-related crime in the area. [continues 248 words]
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, asked: "Why are so many, particularly young people, bored in circumstances more affluent than obtained even in the recent past?" when he opened the "Beyond Maintenance" seminar on treating drug abuse at Clonliffe College in Dublin yesterday. He said there was a great need for "the reflection that will enable us to address the deeper causes of drug-taking" and asked: "what is the connection between boredom and drug-taking?" No doubt there were many different sociological, psychological and philosophical ways of approaching this matter, he said. [continues 604 words]
US intervention in the conflict in Colombia could have disastrous consequences for the entire Andean region, writes Ana Carrigan THE US/COLOMBIA: Potomac fever has overtaken US Latin American policy once again - this time triggered by the failure of Washington's "drug war" in a presidential election year, and corporate lobbying by US arms manufacturers and oil men. The result: last week's US Senate vote to approve $1.3 billion in new military aid for Colombia, which will recklessly propel the United States into the vortex of Colombia's civil war, burying the fragile peace hopes with frightening implications for the entire Andean region. The vote was immediately hailed by the US drug czar, Mr Barry McCaffrey, as "a crucial step . . . that will greatly enhance counter-drug efforts in Colombia". Mr McCaffrey should know. It was his announcement of "a drug emergency" in Colombia last summer that pushed the panic button in the Clinton White House. [continues 709 words]
Drug treatment centred on methadone maintenance was "social control and then abandonment", an addiction lecturer told yesterday's conference. Ms Jane Wilson, researcher in addiction and mental health at the University of Stirling in Scotland, said health professionals working with drug addicts should be sensitive to the likelihood of a background of childhood trauma and psychological problems. Returning a detoxified addict to the environment in which they formed their addiction, without recognising that they would need support and possibly psychological treatment, was a recipe for the "revolving-door" syndrome, she said, where the addict might relapse over and over again. [continues 253 words]
Sir, - As a family doctor who has been deeply involved in caring for patients addicted to heroin and for their families in Dublin over the past 10 years, I have always welcomed your newspaper's enlightened approach to the problem of drug addiction. This approach is in general to address the fundamental causes of drug addiction and to explore appropriate management strategies. Breda O' Brien's article entitled "Moving beyond maintainence [sic] in drug addiction" (Opinion, June 24th) was one such excellent article, which once again drew our attention to the root causes of drug addiction in Irish society. [continues 377 words]
Sir, - One of the Dublin communities most devastated by heroin is St Michael's Estate in Inchicore. The local national school, St Michael's CBS, has been told by the Department of Education and Science that it has two pupils fewer than the required number to retain its present teaching staff. The school principal, Mr Tom Mullins, in a letter to Mr Eoin Ryan TD (the Minister with responsibility for drugs), states: "We find it appalling that in spite of all the work we have put in and the huge level of need that all are now acknowledging is in the area, because our roll numbers are down by just two pupils we must now lose a teacher". [continues 378 words]
Crimes linked to drug abuse have engendered high levels of fear among communities in the Ballyfermot/Cherry Orchard area of Dublin, a survey suggests. The survey was conducted by a group of local people with the help of the Vincentian Partnership for Justice. Some respondents who agreed to fill in the anonymous survey form later withdrew because "they were afraid that they might be recognised through their responses and action taken against them". All age groups agreed that closer involvement by parents with their children and more gardai are crucial to combating the drugs problem in the area. [continues 196 words]
On Saturday June 3rd a large, expensive advertisement appeared in newspapers. In bold letters it warned all heroin-users not to inject. It went on: "If you wish to have treatment go to your local Health Board Addiction Centre where you will be immediately assessed." A young man who is a heroin addict and who lives in Father Peter McVerry's hostel rang the 24-hour freephone Drugs Helpline number. He was given an appointment for the next day. Father Peter McVerry was impressed, particularly since this was a bank holiday weekend. The young man went and was told that he would be written to about treatment. Some three weeks later he still has heard nothing. Needless to say, Father McVerry is no longer impressed. [continues 1012 words]
Officials of the EU member-states, the European Commission, Switzerland, Canada and Japan are meeting in London today with the Colombian government to discuss President Andres Pastrana's appeal for massive aid. Mr Pastrana is asking the European Community to contribute $1 billion to his $7.5 billion development plan, known as "Plan Colombia", to support Colombia's peace process and combat trafficking in narcotics. Today's meeting will enable the participants to familiarise themselves with the details of the Plan Colombia programmes they are being asked to fund. [continues 553 words]
It looks as if the mystery of the hitherto unexplained deaths of some heroin addicts in Dublin, Glasgow and the north of England in recent weeks is just about unravelled. Investigators in Scotland appear to have established that a species of bacterium known as Clostridium - possibly Clostridium novyi, a less familiar member of the species whose number include the lethal causative agents of botulism, gas gangrene and tetanus - must have contaminated the batch of heroin which some heroin addicts injected into their muscles. [continues 466 words]
Sir, - I work in the field of adult education in some of the less salubrious parts of town and write to concur with the views expressed by John Gallagher (June 12th). Heroin is indeed a scourge affecting all tiers of society. The drug problem has tainted communities such as Ballyfermot and Inchicore as being drug-ridden areas to be avoided at all cost. It is difficult to change this reputation and some of my students believe they have no chance of getting a job interview because of the address shown on their CVs. [continues 151 words]
Sir, - Paul Delaney (June 13th) claims there is "growing evidence" of the "recreational" use of heroin by "well-heeled people" in what he describes as "a relatively safe manner". We would be interested in perusing this evidence but doubt that he can refer us to any particular study. He also asserts that what are required to address the heroin problem in Dublin are intervention strategies that prevent "recreational" users of the drug in marginalised communities progressing beyond occasional use to dependency. Heroin use is not a problem, it appears, it is just that working-class kids cannot handle the drug as well as their more affluent counterparts. [continues 153 words]
Sir, - I agree with Ald Michael Conaghan (June 10th) that heroin use is firmly anchored in distinct socio-economic settings and that heroin is synonymous with the "official neglect over generations [that has] created conditions of educational, economic and social exclusion". However, in accepting this, let us not inadvertently send the message that, while we grapple with the bigger picture of long term change in our society, young people from marginalised communities will have to engage is some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy by becoming drug addicts. [continues 544 words]
