42% of HEROIN USERS IN GROUP NOW DEAD

More than 40 per cent of 57 young people identified as heroin users in a
1981 study of a Dublin community have since died, a conference was told at
the weekend.

The original survey was carried out by a local curate and three community
workers, Mr Barry Cullen, of the Department of Social Studies at Trinity
College Dublin, told the seminar on young people and drugs. The south
innercity community had a population of 1,200 and an estimated youth
population of 200.

Fortytwo per cent of the heroin users or 13 per cent of the population of
15 to 24yearolds in that community in 1981 are now dead. A further four
are seriously ill.

"Think of the effect of the loss through death of such a percentage of
young people," Mr Cullen said. "Think of the number of children who have
been bereaved who are being raised by grannies, relatives or in care. Think
of the number of families who have experienced two, three or even more
deaths. Think of this experience being replicated in five other nearby
flats complexes."

Mr Cullen was addressing a seminar, "Young People and Drugs: Critical
Issues for Policy," hosted in the university by the Children's Centre and
Addiction Studies Course of TCD Department of Social Studies. The seminar
was attended by community workers, youth workers, academics and health
board personnel.

Mr Cullen said the "drugs war" should be replaced by policies capable of
convincing the residents of communities affected by heroin addiction that,
with institutional support, they could obtain real benefits from the
growing economy.

He said anyone who had observed Dublin's drug problem over the last 25
years "could not but be appalled" by the lack of creativity and innovation
shown at institutional level. The very existence of a serious drug problem
was not properly conceded until the publication of the Rabbitte report last
year, he said.

Mr Cullen said there was a need to see the drug problem "as a collection of
local drugs problems that differ across space and time, often requiring
different policy responses and strategies." This reality has now been
recognised by the Government, with the establishment of local drugs task
forces.

He also said there was a need to distinguish between recreational drug use
and problem drug use. There was no comparison between the occasional
recreational use of cannabis, ecstasy or alcohol and the habitual use of
injectable opiates, Mr Cullen said.

Community and voluntary agencies had shown more insight and innovation than
institutions. "There needs to be a better resourcing of local support
systems for young people who have or who are about to have drugs problems.
Maybe harm reduction messages are best provided by people who already
operate within the drug scene. Maybe counselling and helpline services need
to be more accessible and staffed by people who can be trusted by young
drug users," he added.