THE NATIONAL DRUGS STRATEGY

It is timely that the Government should undertake a review of the nation's
strategy on how to deal with the many problems of substance abuse, and
appropriate that it is seeking submissions from all relevant and concerned
parties in this review.

Something of the order of 100 written submissions have already been received
and it is likely that the national drugs strategy team, and the 13 local
drugs task forces set up in those areas where drug abuse has already ravaged
whole communities, will learn from many of them.

Few can argue that the local drugs task forces have not been a success: the
involvement of local communities has been important, giving people who must
live daily with the social devastation a say in what is happening around
them and to them. But the drugs problem persists and a great deal of arduous
work remains to be undertaken before we can begin to see a decline in the
general misery which surrounds addiction.

Massive resources still need to be provided by the State and by local
agencies, if there is to be any amelioration of that misery.

That misery has been exacerbated in recent weeks with the emergence (here as
well as in Scotland and the north of England) of heroin contaminated with
what sounds like a bacterium which can be lethal if injected into muscle
tissue.

But, tragic as the deaths have been and important as it is to eliminate this
added hazard from lives already blighted by addiction, there will always be
deaths from regular heroin abuse even when the supply is not contaminated.
It is important that this additional complication, amply covered in the
media, should not distract from the main aim, which is to remove the causes
of drug addiction in the first place.

It has been said before, but will always bear repetition, that many
different factors are involved in the creation of epidemics of addiction and
each and all of these factors have to be addressed and remedied.

The national and local drugs task forces are still a long way from being
able to do that. Clearly, social services must be deeply involved, as must
educational services, health services and law enforcement agencies.

It would appear that there is need for a greater involvement of the
Ministries of Health, Social Affairs, Education and Justice in the
deployment of the resources which the local task forces need to accomplish
the very complex and difficult tasks they have set out to undertake.

There is a most urgent need for the provision of healthy recreational
outlets for young people in the most socially deprived inner city areas
where social exclusion has been an easily identified factor in the spread of
drug addiction.

There is need for very close Garda surveillance in every town in the
Republic of any drug-related activities that may be going on. Heroin abuse
is still largely confined to the capital and a couple of other cities, but
there are ample signs of a drug culture developing in many provincial towns,
even if heroin is not yet involved there.

Such drugs as cocaine and ecstasy (both potentially lethal) are being sold,
bought and consumed in most regions of the country, even if alcohol abuse is
still seen by many people in Ireland as the main scourge in smaller urban
and rural communities.

The Minister of State at the Department of Sport, Tourism and Recreation, Mr
Eoin Ryan, who is representing the Government in the current review of the
drugs strategy, must listen carefully over the next fortnight as the
hearings which started yesterday in Cork move on to other locations.

The review must be completed with a sense of urgency and all the resources
required to drive the strategy successfully to its target of a drug-free
society must be provided by the Government unstintingly. This is a social,
legal, medical and educational project that is more worthy of investment
than anything else affecting the economy or the social fabric of the nation.