NUMBER OF ADDICTS ON TREATMENT DOUBLES IN SIX YEARS

TWICE as many Dublin heroin addicts are now seeking treatment than six
years ago, according to a report out yesterday.

And the number of teenage drug abusers who sought help in the greater
Dublin area has more than tripled, figures released by the Health Research
Board show.

The dramatic new evidence emerged from statistics supplied to the ERB
through the National Drug Treatment Reporting System.

The report also reveals that since 1990 there has been a steady increase in
the numbers presenting for treatment and generally clients are getting
younger with the scale of the increase particularly remarkable in Dublin's
north inner city.

The Treated Drug Misuse in Ireland National Report 1996 found that a total
of 4,865 cases were treated for drug misuse in the country as a whole last
year.

Most of these cases, 88pc, were treated in the Eastern Health Board areas
and a quarter were resident in Dublin's inner city areas.

In contrast the Southern Health Board second after the EHB had just 6pc
of all cases while 3pc were helped in the South East. In the other health
board areas the problem was minimal, totalling less than 100. Outside
Dublin heroin is in little use with cannabis the most common drug taken.

The report also gives a profile of those treated.

It shows that:

* 72pc of drug misusers were male. * Almost twothirds were under 25 years
old. * 58pc had left school at 15 or under. * 83pc were unemployed. * A
high proportion (69pc) lived with their

parents, men more so than women. * Women are more likely than men to be
living with a drug misusing partner. * Cannabis is the main drug of very
young people receiving treatment. * Younger drug users are more likely to
smoke than to inject heroin.

The report also shows that a very high percentage of treated drug misusers
are unemployed, with 90pc out of work in the Dublin area.

But on the positive side it says the numbers injecting drugs has fallen in
the period 19901996 but there has been an increase in the practice of
smoking heroin among the increasing young treated population.

And, on sharing of needles the report says it is difficult to measure the
scale of use but, of those injecting, 26pc shared equipment in the previous
month.

It says women are more likely to share needles than men.