Health chiefs have been ordered to carry out an investigation into the widespread prescription of powerful tranquillisers across Ireland.

Young men are having a harder time dealing with the recession and might be using drugs to cope.

A GOVERNMENT clampdown on the sale of cheap alcohol will not have a “significant impact” on jobs, junior minister Roisín Shortall has said.

Children of drug addicts are suffering in desperation as shame and secrecy shroud the substance misuse in families, it was claimed today.

BANNED head shop drugs are still widely available on the internet, while Customs officials have made 23 seizures already this year, it emerged yesterday.

HEROIN is deepening its grip across the country with record numbers of new addicts outside Dublin looking for help.

A HEAD SHOP drug available here is set to be banned in Britain after drug advisers there said it could “causeserious harm”.

SEVERE staff cutbacks at the state’s drugs research body have had a “very serious and damaging effect”, the Government’s top drug adviser has said.

A STUDY on the level of drug use in prisons and the possible need for needle exchanges in jails will begin this autumn under the terms of a tender issued this week.

THE Government’s advisory group on drugs is to investigate the experience of hospital emergency departments & treating patients suffering ill-effects from using head shop substances, as well as question users of the legal highs.

A SECOND order banning a further range of head shop drugs is due to be brought in by early autumn, the Irish Examiner understands.

THERE are no researchers currently employed on the National Advisory Committee on Drugs – a body set up to conduct research with a view to advising the Government on policy in the area.

LEGAL alternatives to drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy will no longer be sold in head shops from June onwards, the Government confirmed yesterday.

THE Government’s drug advisory body has recommended an entire range of synthetic cannabis chemicals sold in head shops be banned.

THE country’s top drug adviser yesterday told parents giving their children a “free gaff” was a “disaster waiting to happen” in terms of drug use.

HEALTH workers and heroin users have been put on alert over the possible circulation of a deadly batch of heroin contaminated with anthrax, which has already claimed seven lives in Scotland.

PRESSURE mounted on the Government last night to roll out more rehabilitation facilities for heroin users as research showed the number of opiate takers outside Dublin had soared by 165% in the last five years.

TREATMENT programmes for heroin addicts are working, according to a detailed research project.

A leading academic today called for prostitution to be decriminalised to protect women forced to work in the sex industry.

THE richest and the poorest are the heaviest users of sedatives, tranquillisers and anti-depressants, according to a national survey.

Nine per cent of adults have taken anti-depressants and 15% have used sedatives or tranquillisers, according to a study carried out by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs.

AN OFFICIAL report in Britain calling for ecstasy to be downgraded to a class B drug may be examined here by the Government’s expert body on drugs.

CLEAN needles are still not available to drug users across most of the country, risking the spread of infectious diseases, a report has warned.

IN ADVANCE of feared budgetary cutbacks, the minister with responsibility for the national drugs strategy has said Government investment in drug treatment has been paying dividends.

GARDAÍ yesterday said the quality of cocaine seized in a haul of the drug on Wednesday was “extremely low” and was only about 7% pure.

NEARLY 60,000 people have taken cocaine within the last year — more that twice the number of people in 2003, according to a population survey published yesterday.

A major study on the widespread use of drugs in Ireland will be launched today.

THE review of the last national drugs awareness campaign should make essential reading for those involved in the new campaign.

THE Government’s top drugs adviser yesterday said the emergencies in Waterford city highlighted the danger of taking several drugs.

DRUG services may be set up in “discreet” offices near places of work in a bid to attract professionals into treatment.

Amidst all the talk and hype over drugs use, there is very little support to reach out to and educate recreational users of cocaine in Ireland, says Cormac O’Keeffe

HEROIN treatment programmes are cutting drug-related crime by half and are benefiting both addicts and wider society, according to new research.

ALCOHOL and tobacco are more harmful to individuals and to society than many illegal drugs, including cannabis and ecstasy, according to a new report.

COCAINE use is booming across the country and across all social groups with devastating impact, according to a raft of official figures.

CONCERNS over the direct link between cocaine and violence in local communities will be heightened by a major new report showing that the killer drug is destroying lives in all sections of Irish society.

More than three times as many people are now seeking help for problems with cocaine than in the late 1990s, a report revealed today.

USE of crack cocaine, steroids and over-the-counter medication is emerging as a new problem across the country, according to a new report.

POOR literacy skills are blocking Travellers’ access to drug treatment services, a new study found yesterday.

Drug treatment services should be urgently adapted to meet the needs of Travellers, who abuse drugs as much as the general population , a study found today.

DRUG treatment substantially reduces drug use, drug dealing and criminal activity, according to a major study.

The Government's National Advisory Committee on Drugs has reported what is says is significant success in programmes to rehabilitate heroin addicts.

INCLUDING cannabis in a new cautioning system would be a positive measure so long as it offered support to cannabis users, one of the country’s leading psychiatrists said yesterday.

THE vast majority of people who have taken cocaine do not progress and become regular users, according to a new report.

There are almost three times more regular cocaine users in the Republic than in the North, a survey said today.