"WE DON'T NEED RAAD"

Community workers and addiction specialists who attended a meeting to
discuss the city's drug problems on Friday night say they whole
heartedly reject the actions of vigilante group RAAD, adding that the
drugs problem here should be handed back to members of the local community.

The comments were made as those attending the meeting listened to a
talk given by Canadian drugs expert Ainsley Cripps, who warned that
the next major addiction problem to hit families in the city would be
home produced substance Crystal Meth.

A planned meeting between those campaigning for better detox
facilities and the health service commissioners was also discussed at
Friday night's meeting at the Junction in Bishop Street.

Speaking on behalf of the People before Profit group, who organised
the meeting, community activist Goretti Horgan said all those who
attended disapproved entirely of the tactics employed by RAAD.

"Everyone at the meeting was unmoralistic towards RAAD and it's felt
that they're certainly not helping solve the drugs problem in the city
at all," she said.

"Many community workers are annoyed that RAAD claim they're acting on
behalf of the whole community when this is just not the case."

Ms. Horgan said there was now a need to look at the underlying
problems surrounding substance abuse in Derry, instead of
concentrating exclusively on just legal issues.

She said: "There was an agreement by everybody that the whole issue of
problem drug taking includes alcohol, which is the main drug in Derry.
There are a whole number of reasons for abuse of alcohol and other
drugs.

"It's about time we started looking at why young people want to get
out of their heads and the issues surrounding that, a lot of the
problems stem from mental health issues and that's something which
very much needs to be tackled within the community," she added.

Ms. Horgan said that while it would be difficult to campaign for
better youth provision locally in a climate of cuts, it was imperative
to fight for more facilities for young people.

She added: "There is a big need for a community response if we're
really going to tackle the issue of drug abuse and that's why we need
to protect the youth service and fight any potential cuts in the
health service.

"We'll be holding another meeting on these issues on 10th August and
the intention is to protect what we've got and lobby for more
services. If elected representatives are serious about tackling the
drug problem, they need to put the money where their mouths are."