‘We must try to look after drug addicts’

Minister of State Noel Ahern would not oppose injecting rooms for heroin addicts but would question their location, says Cormac O’Keeffe.

DRUGS minister Noel Ahern is not opposed to the establishment of injecting rooms for drug addicts. The minister of state with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy said it was “not a shocking idea” and that his concerns were of a more practical nature.

“There is no decision to set up a consumption room. But if there was a decision, I would not be fighting against it,” said Mr Ahern.

“The actual presence of an injecting room is not that shocking. It does require a change in the law. After that I would be more concerned about how we manage it, where we put it.”

Mr Ahern, based in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, is currently overseeing a mid-term review of the National Drugs Strategy 2001-2008.

He said submissions to the review had again raised the issue of consumption rooms where addicts in the community can come to get clean needles and administer their “fix” in a supervised setting.

Mr Ahern and department officials investigated the operation of pilot consumption rooms in Germany last year.

“It definitely reduces the number of overdoses, to look at it from a harm reduction point of view. The problem is where to put it.”

But he said he would be opposed to having such a facility in the city centre.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, he said the service would be of benefit to those addicts who were not coming forward to treatment services.

“If we have serious drug misusers, basically, we have to try and look after them and improve their health. Professionals say there is no need for anyone to die in an overdose.

“People who might not be that au fait with the drugs situation might see it as of enormous significance. I don’t see it in quite those earth-shattering terms.”

The Government was strongly criticised by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in 2003 for even considering the option.

The body - which polices UN conventions on illegal drugs - told the Government consumption rooms were contrary to the conventions.

“They did complain strongly. We may need to change our law, but they’ve managed to have pilot schemes in other countries that are also signatories.”

Consumption rooms have been tested in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Spain and Australia, with Portugal and Luxembourg planning similar facilities.

A study by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs said these projects had been set up in response to high levels of overdose, to reduce nuisance associated with street drug use, to lower the incidence of blood-borne disease transmission and to improve the general health of a marginalised group.

However, it said the effectiveness of consumption rooms as a harm reduction strategy was “inconclusive”.

Consumption rooms are one issue raised by the wide-ranging National Drugs Strategy, which covers the year 2001-2008.

The strategy is mapped out under the four pillars of supply reduction, prevention, treatment and research, and identifies 100 different actions to be taken.

While many actions have begun, and tasks that cover the lifetime of the strategy are ongoing, other actions had specific deadlines, by which time they were supposed to have been either started or implemented.

In the key sectors of the Department of Justice, An Garda Siochána, the Prison Service, the health boards and the Department of Education, many key actions are overdue, according to a government report.

In addition, the setting up of regional drug task forces - a central plank of the strategy - is several years behind schedule.

Department of Justice:

Of the three actions, two have yet to be implemented, while the third is an ongoing action.

Two actions - to set up an IT system to monitor prosecutions, and establish guidelines for the community to get involved in garda supply reduction activities - are due in late 2005.

An Garda Siochána:

Of the 13 actions (five involving the Customs Service), implementation is said to have begun in nine.

But two key actions - to increase garda resources in the 14 local drug task force areas and to increase resources to the garda drug units - were supposed to have happened at the end of 2001. The target date for both is now late 2004.

Prison Service:

Of the six actions for the Prison Service, implementation has begun in only one area.

In one action, an independent review of the overall effectiveness of prison drug strategy was supposed to have been completed by mid-2004. The target date is now mid-2008.

Health Boards:

Of the 24 actions, implementation has only begun in half of them.

One key action required health boards to devise treatment and rehabilitation options for each drugmisuser by the end of 2002. The target date is now 2005-2007, depending on the health board.

Department of Education:

Of the nine actions, implementation is said to have started in seven. But a number are two years overdue.

One action - involving the provision of education supports to local drug task forces - was supposed to have been done by the end of 2001. It didn’t happen until 2004.

Regional Drug Task Forces:

RDTFs were supposed to have been established by the end of 2001. They were supposed to have full-time co-ordinators to operate them, backed up by support staff.

They were only established in 2003 and are still at the stage of drawing up their development plans.

Each RDTF received a small administration budget of between €50,000-€100,000.

In most cases, full-time staff with health boards have taken on the added role as coordinators of the RDTFs.