CASE HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO TACKLE YOUNG DRUG TAKING

Drug Abuse Is More Prevalent Among Young People In Dublin Than In Many Other European Cities, Writes Padraig O'morain, Health And Children Correspondent ( Pomorain@Irish-times.ie)

Sources familiar with the background of Kim O'Donovan deny she was a drug addict.

Nevertheless, the fact that she appears to have died of an overdose of drugs has focused attention on the needs of young people experimenting with drugs.

To see her life in the context of drugs would clearly be inaccurate and unfair. The fact remains, however, that the idea of using drugs and her access to drugs occurred in one of Europe's worst cities for drug abuse among young people.

Information provided by the three health boards in the greater Dublin area yesterday contained grim findings from a survey of young people in five cities, Bremen, Dublin, Groningen, Newcastle and Rome.

The findings include:

Pupils in Dublin reported the highest rates of regular alcohol consumption, 16 per cent, compared with 15 per cent in Newcastle, 9 per cent in Groningen, 2 per cent in Bremen and 2 per cent in Rome.

Pupils in Dublin reported the highest rates of cannabis consumption, 28 per cent, compared with 27 per cent in Newcastle, 21 per cent in Bremen, 15 per cent in Groningen and 11 per cent in Rome. They started smoking cannabis earlier. They had one of the highest uses of illicit drugs other than cannabis, with the use of inhalants being particularly high.

Cannabis and alcohol, rather than heroin, were the drugs mostly used by young people in this survey. But what it paints is a picture of a city - and perhaps the rest of the State is not far behind - in which a drug culture is one of the defining features.

While heroin emerges as one of the lesser-used drugs, we have, nevertheless, reached the stage where 13,000 Dubliners are estimated to be addicted to heroin.

It seems fair to say that the social services were slow off the mark in responding to the drugs problem and especially to the heroin epidemic. This slowness was compounded by the reluctance of local communities to have treatment services for drug addicts located in their districts.

In recent years, however, the Eastern Health Board (replaced in March by three "area" health boards) has brought about a remarkable increase in treatment facilities.

Six years ago there were three locations in which treatment facilities were provided. Today there are 55.

That is a considerable achievement by any reckoning. Much of the credit has to go to Mr Pat McLoughlin, now director of planning and commissioning at the Eastern Regional Health Authority, who made a crucial difference when appointed to provide services for drug-abusers.

Much of this effort, however, has been focused on the large number of habitual drug-abusers in the city. What the case of Kim O'Donovan has highlighted is the need to tackle the too widespread and potentially fatal experimentation with drugs among very young people.