State ‘failing to tackle heroin addiction’

THE Government is failing to tackle the growing problem of the country’s 15,000 heroin addicts, focusing its resources on reducing supply of the drug rather than reducing demand, the head of the country’s biggest drug treatment centre said.

Director of the Merchants Quay Project, Tony Geoghegan, said the fight against drugs has moved away from helping addicts overcome their problems and towards criminalising them.

“Since the Veronica Guerin murder and the public outrage that it caused, drug problems are being dealt with in the criminal justice system instead of the health system.