A NEW national agency is to be set up to spearhead the country’s drugs strategy, it has emerged.

IN reply to your report headlined ‘Clean needles still unavailable to addicts’ (February 2), I would like to know if the Government-appointed “expert group” recommended that the goal of a “drug-free lifestyle” should be part of its strategy?

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

THE department overseeing the national drugs strategy — and not the HSE — is responsible for the failure to implement the Government’s rehabilitation strategy, a leading community drugs representative has claimed.

PARENTS seeking help for their children caught up in drugs were yesterday urged to contact a national family support group.

NEW colour-coded syringe caps are to be given to injecting cocaine users in a bid to combat the spread of infectious diseases.

Former Fianna Fáil backbencher Pat Carey will hold his first engagement as a junior Government minister today.

HEALTH Service Executive workers who will staff Ireland’s first cocaine treatment clinics in Dublin and Cork are to be given intensive training in the best intervention methods at Waterford Institute of Technology.

THE first cocaine treatment clinics are to be set up in Dublin and Cork later this year, it was confirmed yesterday.

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.

A SECOND member of the State’s National Drugs Strategy Team (NDST) has criticised the Government’s poor response to the problem of illegal drugs.

ONE of the country’s most senior drugs activists yesterday launched a stinging attack on the Government’s handling of the drugs strategy.

IT was people power that dragged the drugs problem to the top of the political agenda in 1996.

The Government has shown a lack of commitment to tackling the country’s drugs crisis, a leading activist claimed today.

ALMOST 370 experienced gardaí are to retire early from the force this year, according to new figures.

IMPLEMENTATION of the Government’s national drugs strategy is being threatened by the actions of the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health, it was claimed yesterday.

Dr Ann Hope, National Alcohol Policy Adviser at the Department of Health and the Government’s main advisor on alcohol, has warned that forthcoming legislation to permit cafés to sell alcohol will exacerbate drinking problems.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell’s plans to introduce café-style bars to tackle binge drinking will only make the problem worse, according to the Government’s foremost alcohol adviser.

Cormac O’Keeffe

IN the wake of recent headlines about junior minister Noel Ahern going to Germany to look at new services for drug users, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that those involved in existing services are expressing serious concerns to him about the Government’s commitment to support those services that are already in place.

ROBERT knows what he’ll be doing if his employer goes to the wall.