DOORMEN AWARDED DRUGS EDUCATION CERTS

Eight nightclub doormen in Dublin have been awarded drugs education
certificates by the Eastern Health Board.

The men completed a 10-week education programme on how to recognise
drugs and cope with the side-effects of drug use in nightclubs.

"A number of people choose every weekend to use dance drugs," the EHB
education officer, Mr Stephen Harding, said yesterday. "If we have
information that could save lives, then it would be wrong not to teach
it." Mr Harding said some nightclubs were reluctant to become
involved. "They were afraid that their participation in the programme
would mean they had a drug problem on their premises."

The managers and owners of 24 Dublin nightclubs attended a twoday
training course earlier this year, Mr Harding said. Twenty bouncers
signed up to take the course, the number dropped to 16 and eight
bouncers from four clubs completed it. The certificates were presented
to the bouncers in D'An Laoghaire on Monday night. "We're grateful to
the four clubs," Mr Harding said. "We would see them as the
responsible ones."

The board plans to run the education course on a city-wide basis from
January. It is also looking at a credit-card size information card
given to club-goers in Britain with a view to adopting a similar card
in Ireland.

"We need to set up working groups of gardai, club owners, health
boards and the health and safety authority," he said. "If club owners
throw out a youngster who is under the influence of something and he
subsequently suffers injury or death, they're leaving themselves open
to legal action," he said.

A "chill-out" area where dancers could cool down in a nightclub could
help prevent deaths by dehydration associated with ecstasy use. "But
if the clubs do that they're seen as condoning drug use," Mr Harding
said.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry