SPECIAL DRUG UNITS DEMANDED

Drug addicts should be treated in specialist units and not in psychiatric
hospitals where some of them are supplying fellow patients with drugs,
including cannabis, a psychiatric nurses' union representative warned
yesterday.

According to Mr Ben Weathers of SIPTU psychiatric nurses' branch, addicts -
some as young as 16 - are supplying cannabis to patients in acute
psychiatric units in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary.

There was an urgent need for specialist units with trained staff to deal
with drug addicts. Psychiatric nurses were trained to deal with psychiatric
patients but not to rehabilitate drug addicts, he pointed out.

According to the Southern Health Board, which has responsibility for acute
psychiatric units in Cork and Kerry, patients are closely monitored while
being treated as in-patients. Patients are advised that they cannot bring
in any medications other than legally prescribed ones. "The board takes
appropriate action if a person breaches this condition," said the board in
a statement.