25% RISE IN ATTENDANCE AT INNER CITY DRUG CENTRE

The number of people using the facilities of Dublin's Merchant's Quay
Project for drug addicts rose by 25 per cent last year on the previous
year's figure, according to its annual report. Last year, 2,220 people
availed of the service, 500 more than in 1996.

The report from the project, which is run by the Franciscans, paints a
bleak picture. It shows that more drug users are homeless and younger, with
the average age being 24, compared to an EU average of 29. This masks an
even more depressing statistic: the average age for those attending for the
first time is 18.

Merchant's Quay Project is one of the largest voluntary agencies working
with drug users in the State and provides services ranging from crisis
intervention and health promotion with street drugusers to stabilisation
programmes and drug-free residential treatment.

According to Mr Tony Geoghegan, assistant director for clinical services,
young drug users were a particularly vulnerable group. They appeared to be
less aware of HIV/AIDS issues and engaged in more risky injecting
behaviour. They were also less likely to be interested in treatment.

He said low dose intervention treatments did not necessarily work with this
age group. Strategies aimed at young addicts had to be developed.

Mr Geoghegan said he believed the number of addicts using the project would
probably decline this year because of the increase in local drugs task
forces. However, the number of addicts would continue to increase as the
underlying reasons for addiction - poverty and disadvantage - had still to
be dealt with.

Some 59 per cent of the people using the centre said they had come off
drugs at one time or another. The report said unemployment and poverty were
related to drug use and if people become drug-free but remained unemployed
their chances of returning to drugs were high.

It noted an increase in the number of young women attending for needle
exchange. They were a particularly vulnerable group and many were
prostitutes to support their habit. The project was planning a women's
health project which would address the needs of this group.

Last year, the project established a long-term therapeutic community and
training centre to give former drug users a one-year skills training
course. This will give former drug users greater access to more mainstream
training which can break the cyclical relationship between unemployment and
drug use.

It is also engaged in programmes linking former drug users with the labour
market and in training people working for homeless agencies so they can
cope with drug users.