DUBLIN HAS 'NO PLANS' TO MAKE HEROIN LEGAL

THE Republic's junior Minister responsible for drugs, Eoin Ryan, today ruled
out any move to legalise heroin.

Mr Ryan insisted Leinster House had no plans to distribute free legal heroin
to addicts.

"At the moment the government has no plans to legalise heroin," he said.

"I don't have any plans and the government doesn't have any plans to
implement any such proposal at all.

"We are setting up an advisory committee on drugs which will give the
government authoritative research so that policy decisions can be made on
fact and on what exactly is happening.

"We will look at all aspects of the drug problem in Ireland."

Mr Ryan said that the drugs committee would report back to the government
and it would then act on the findings.

Tony Geoghegan, of the Merchant's Quay Drugs Project in Dublin, said: "It's
not such a radical idea as it seems.

"Other countries look at a much wider range of treatment options than we do
here in Ireland.

"Germany has legalised consumption rooms where active drugs users come and
use drugs under supervision. There is heroin prescribing in Switzerland and
Holland.

"I think we should consider all options. The fact of the matter is people in
their thousands are using heroin in Dublin."