Recreational cannabis users must not be treated as criminals, a leading social campaigner said today.

THE Queen of England will visit Ireland during her reign but probably not for a few years, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.

THERE has been a significant rise in cocaine use in recent years, a leading population survey is expected to reveal today.

ABOUT €700,000 is to be spent on the National Drug Awareness Campaign, due to start in the coming weeks.

THREE cocaine clinics due to open this month have been delayed due to a recent industrial relations dispute, it emerged yesterday.

A NEW centre on Cork’s northside, which targets at-risk youths, will help in the fight against drugs.

TWO facilities were opened yesterday in Cork and Waterford for young people at risk of drug use and crime.

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

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

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.

THERE has been a 900% increase in the number of cocaine addicts being treated in Ireland over the last seven years, according to new figures.

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