THE SCOURGE OF HEROIN

The death of eight heroin addicts in Dublin and the hospitalisation of seven
others, draws abrupt attention to a group in our society, an underclass,
largely forgotten. The eight individual deaths are tragic evidence of a very
much larger problem: there are, according to official figures, 13,000 heroin
addicts in Dublin alone. That represents about a quarter of Páirc Uí Chaoimh
packed to capacity for a major sporting event.

And, of course, the figure relates only to the capital city. But, as every
parent and policeman knows, it is a feature of the heroin problem, indeed of
the drug problem as a whole, that illegal substance abuse is no longer
confined to the State's three or four largest cities. Drug abuse infects all
our major cities and all major provincial towns - in reality, there is
virtually no urban settlement in the State where drug abuse of some sort is
not taking place.

That this tragedy has befallen mainly the weakest and least well off in
society is well known; indeed, to some extent we have become inured to the
sight of dazed and bedraggled addicts shuffling, like the walking dead,
along city footpaths. They are there but we no longer see them. The rest of
us meanwhile get on with our lives. This reaction by the population at large
is understandable: the problem is so ghastly, so apparently hopeless and
beyond our solving that we simply airbrush it out of sight. But this cannot
allow us to remain indifferent to the present tragedy.

There are no magic solutions, however. But we need to consider why abuse of
all forms of drugs, legal and illegal, is on the increase. In the effect
they have on the user, drugs are by definition an escape. But from what? In
the case of grinding inner-city poverty and deprivations of many sorts, the
escape must, surely, be from one's immediate surroundings. In the case of
middle-class substance abuse, the escape may be linked to teenage angst and
other factors. Drug taking has become more acceptable in youth culture in
recent years. Many middle-class parents believe that young people today are
less active than a decade or two ago. The number of children in urban
Ireland who do not participate in countryside pursuits - who do not walk as
a matter of routine, who do not play sports and who do not observe and
celebrate the simple joys of nature - is large and growing. Is there a link
here between low self-esteem and increased drug abuse? Anecdotal evidence
suggests that teenage alcohol consumption has reached astonishing levels.

As for the immediate heroin deaths crisis, the medical authorities and
social services are coping as best they can and are, by all accounts, deeply
worried about what is happening. The source of the killing drug remains
unknown. The tragedy raises awkward questions: should the State offer
addicts a testing system for their illegal drugs - thus saving lives perhaps
but forcing the State to collude? Should restrictions be eased on the number
of doctors permitted to prescribe methadone? There is no simple solution to
this problem as other jurisdictions have discovered. But thoughtful debate
is needed here and needed urgently.