ANTI-DRUGS ACTIVISTS THREATEN PROTESTS

ANTI-DRUGS activists warned yesterday they may again take to the streets of
Dublin as latest figures show heroin use is increasing. Last June,
inner-city communities marched in the capital to ensure the ongoing drugs
crisis was kept high on the political agenda and more resources were
provided to tackle the menace.

"The drugs are never going to go away and they must sit up and take note of
that," said Bernie Howard, family support co-ordinator in a North
inner-city community."What they are giving now would have been great in the
1980s or early 90s, but they are not moving up with the resources."

Ms Howard said they needed more resources for family support, education,
treatment and aftercare.The number of heroin addicts receiving treatment in
the Eastern Regional Health Authority grew by 15% last year. Of the 13,500
users, only about 6,000 are in treatment. Ireland and Finland are the only
two European countries with rising heroin use while it is stabilising in
most EU countries, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs
and Drug Addiction.

Dr Jo Murphy-Lawless, author of Fighting Back a report on the practical
efforts of Dublin mothers against the heroin scourge supported the call for
more resources to be made available. Despite 340 projects currently
supported under the National Drugs Strategy "it simply is not enough".
Doctors involved in methadone maintenance are working to their maximum
capacity and more GPs are needed to cut waiting time for addicts, says the
Irish College of General Practitioners.

"Communities dare not let matters slip back to where they were before the
task forces were set up in the wake of widescale public protest from the
inner city communities," Dr Murphy-Lawless, lecturer in social policy at
University College Dublin said.

She said the women involved in the Fighting Back project did not expect the
drugs problems to disappear in their lifetimes, but they were urgently
seeking to secure a future for their children and their community.

Junior Minister Noel Ahern, who launched Fighting Back, said the Government
had allocated over 51m to implement the plans of the 14 local drugs task forces