OPINION - DRUGS CRISIS: The Northern Scene

CONFRONTING THE NORTH'S DRUGS PROBLEM

Since 1990 there has been a dramatic increase in not only availability and
use, but also in the acceptance of illegal drugs in the North, writes FRANK
MCGOLDRICK

There is no drug problem and there never will be a drug problem in Northern
Ireland, or so some people would have you believe.

>From 1990 to 1997 drug arrests have tripled and the estimated value of
seizures by Customs and Excise has increased more than tenfold from 1990 to
1995.

RUC cannabis seizures have risen twelve-fold between 1990 and 1997, Ecstasy
seizures rose from zero in 1990 to 77,000 kilos last year and even more
alarmingly, heroin is now being seized in larger quantities than before.

Last year saw the first seizure of crack cocaine in Northern Ireland.

Can you see a pattern emerging here? You hardly need binoculars. We in the
non-government sector have been aware and vocal about the situation for
years. All the evidence indicates that drug use is a growing problem, and
no community can regard itself as insulated from it. A large number of
young people have been offered, have experimented with, and are using drugs.

Quite simply, since 1990 there has been a dramatic increase in not only
availability and use, but also in the acceptance of illegal drugs.

So what have the government departments done about this? While there have
been some initiatives over the past few years, such as the setting up of
local Community Addiction Teams (although this was done within their
existing alcohol budgets) and Local Co-ordination Teams in the four health
board areas, the non-statutory sector has had a 3 per cent decrease in
funding in real terms each year over the past two years.

Since 1985, there has been no significant increase in the money allocated
to drug services by the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS).

Since the 1980s, it has funded two voluntary organisations, Northlands in
Derry, which provides treatment, training, education and research into
drug-related problems, and the Northern Ireland Community Addiction
Service, which has three branches in Belfast. But even though we now have a
substantially larger problem and a greatly increased number of voluntary
organisations, these are the only two organisations which are still
core-funded by the DHSS.

The DHSS seems to pay little attention to the fact that the heroin problem
in Antrim and Ballymena is growing as quickly as the fortified houses used
by the dealers.

We are constantly told by officials that Northern Ireland does not have an
"injecting drug culture". This statement is made as if to suggest that
people in Northern Ireland are culturally predisposed against sticking
needles in their arms.

I am sure Dubliners thought they did not have an injecting drug culture
either until the authorities actually noticed that people had started
injecting drugs.

We have no needle exchange or methadone reduction programmes in Northern
Ireland, and it was not until these services were set up in Dublin because
of the spread of HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis C, that the extent of the heroin
problem in the city was realised. Are we going to follow Dublin's example
and wait until the spread of HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis C before we do
anything? It looks that way.

In the Eastern Health and Social Services Board, boasting 10 of the 20 most
deprived wards in Northern Ireland, I know of three voluntary drugs
organisations that can no longer provide services due to lack of funding.

PANDA - People's Alternative to Narcotics, Drugs and Alcohol - which
provides drink and alcohol free social activities for people with a history
of addiction to either. Closed.

Dunlewy Substance Advice, a counselling, education and employment support
service for people of all ages. One of its three centres has been reduced
to part-time opening and is expected to close in April.

The Research Group on Chemical Dependency, of which I was the project
manager, which published information on drug-related services. Closed last
January.

The Department of Education allocated an additional £250,000 for drug and
alcohol education last year. When said quickly, this may sound like a lot
of money, but it works out as about £47 per school.

With such a substantial amount of money, all the schools will surely be
able to bring in the specialist agencies and buy the educational resources
they need. I think not.

Our young people have a right to information and education so they can make
informed decisions. It is the responsibility of the Department of Education
to provide this, no matter what the cost.

Another major problem is Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act (NI) 1967, which
states that if you know of anyone who is "committing an arrestable
offence", it is a crime not to report him or her to the police.

This law, an anti-terrorist measure which is not in place in the rest of
the UK, poses great difficulties for people working in the drug education
and counselling fields who have to break the law on a daily basis to do
their work effectively.

For example, if I was educating a group of young people on the dangers of
drugs and one of them told me that they took drugs, I would be duty bound
to report them to the police.

If in the future someone working in the drugs field is actually prosecuted
under Section 5, this could mark the end of effective drug education and
counselling.

In light of the growing acceptance of illegal drugs there is a need to
increase awareness of the potential legal and health implications and a
need for access to accurate, up-to-date information on the support services
available.

Drug users and the public have a right to all the services necessary, from
education and information to counselling, treatment and residential care.
It is DHSS's responsibility to provide these services.

The "Just say no!" approach has been proven time and again not to work, so
we need to spend more time, effort and money in education, prevention, harm
reduction and harm minimisation.

Some people have said that these approaches advocate drug use, but I say to
them: "Does opening accident and emergency units encourage people to have
accidents and emergencies?"

In Northern Ireland we do not have as bad a drugs problem as other areas of
the UK and Ireland, but we cannot be complacent, we cannot sit back and
hope things will get better, or just not get any worse.

We may not get all the funding and services we want, but surely we deserve
all the funding and services we need.

Frank McGoldrick represents the independent sector on the Eastern Drug
Co-ordinating Team. He is the Northern Ireland representative on the
European Commission for the Control of Drugs.