BLIND OPPOSITION TO DRUG REHAB IMPEDES PROGRESS

ANDREWS ON SATURDAY: Drug abuse and drug dependency are endemic in
Ireland. For the majority of the community, socialising and drinking
alcohol go hand in hand. Indeed, I suspect that a lot of people reading
this article will be, to some extent, socially dependent upon alcohol.

For many of us a get-together without drink seems hardly worthwhile, a
point of view I share. From the comfortable Irish Times reader to the
destitute wino, from Muscadet to meths, we could be classified as a
nation of drug-abusers.

While we readily accept that alcoholism is a pitiable disease and that
alcoholics deserve every possible assistance in their recovery, we
simply refuse to offer the same degree of humanity to those addicted to
heroin. Opposition to the establishment of drug-rehabilitation centres
has long prevented the effective treatment of heroin abuse in this
country.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote here about a letter I received from a
woman in my own constituency, a very decent woman indeed, who objected
to the establishment of a drug rehabilitation unit in her locality on
the grounds that one of her teenage children might meet a drug addict on
the bus.

Unfortunately, her attitude is as pervasive as it is blinkered. We
deplore the crimes which fund heroin addiction. We deplore the spread of
HIV associated with intravenous drug use. We deplore the waste of life
and human potential caused by heroin abuse. Yet we refuse to permit the
treatment of this awful addiction through the establishment of effective
treatment centres.

In south-west Dublin, for example, there is a waiting list of about 300
people who need treatment, who want treatment, but who cannot receive
that treatment because local opposition forbids the establishment of a
treatment centre.

In a society which accepts and even glorifies the abuse of alcohol,
where death by tobacco is commonplace, attitudes towards illicit drug
abuse remain unaware and unhelpful to the treatment of this addiction.
Successive governments have also failed to provide necessary funding or
imagination. Meanwhile, whole communities have suffered, crime has raged
and HIV has spread.

Tony Gregory, as a public representative, has shown bravery in tackling
the drug-pushers. Journalist Paul Williams has been consistent and
courageous in his crusade in this area of abuse. We must also never
forget the enormous debt we owe to the many people who work tirelessly
on a voluntary basis.

Now enter Eoin Ryan. Eoin is Minister of State with special
responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy. His commitment, energy
and ability have impressed many on both sides in Leinster House. His
brief is as politically unenviable as it is difficult, especially as a
first brief: no great multi-million-pound announcements, no jet-setting
or high-profile appearances. In fact, the people he aims to help are
among those in the State least likely to vote.

Where Eoin Ryan, I think, has been especially effective is in advancing
a partnership approach with the communities most affected by heroin
addiction and its effects through the Local Drugs Task Forces. He has
argued successfully that funding for these task-forces should be greatly
increased.

This has facilitated the establishment of local action plans for
treatment, rehabilitation, prevention and curbing local heroin supply.
These also link up with the efforts being made by the Department of
Justice and the Department of Health and Children to combat the drug
problem.

Eoin has also stressed time and again that to tackle our heroin problem
we must attempt, once and for all, to end the urban blight which affects
every single one of the areas where addiction is a significant problem.
Successive studies and common sense support this notion.

In fact, in every one of these areas early school-leaving and the
resulting poverty cycle have exacerbated the heroin problem. The
Minister is vociferously backing special arrangements for the 25 worst
urban black spots so the National Development Plan can be implemented in
three years, rather than the seven envisaged for the rest of the State.

I am not saying that all is rosy in the area of heroin treatment. The
first signs are now evident, however, that the problem in this country
has stabilised and that the number of addicts is dropping at last. It
does appear that the various initiatives led by Eoin Ryan are bringing
real improvements.

The methadone-replacement treatment which is favoured here has been, in
general terms, a success. Across Europe almost 300,000 drug-users are on
the methadone programme and, where supported by services such as
counselling and training, it has been shown to work. Indeed, about 40
per cent of those on the methadone programme in the Eastern Regional
Health Authority area are now working.

On the wider front more than 350 schools have run drug awareness
programmes, the drug courts are up and at it, the pilot Labour Inclusion
Programme is helping recovering drug-users to obtain employment, and
Special Community Employment places have been designed and provided for
users.

There are many more initiatives under way, each aimed at the only
worthwhile goal in this area: full rehabilitation and reintegration into
society. However, the problem of local opposition persists. It is a
terrible impediment to social progress and needs to be resisted.

While opposition to treatment centres and the details of drug-related
crime remain newsworthy and while resistance to local and governmental
drugs initiatives ignite great talk-radio debates, I suspect many would
rather ignore the positive news and hold on to the easy line that people
like Eoin Ryan and others are doing nothing. In which case, have a
blissful Saturday.