State has lost impetus on drugs, says activist

THE largest voluntary drug treatment centre in the State has accused the Government of turning its back on the National Drug Strategy by cutting budgets and placing a moratorium on the recruitment of staff to addiction services.

Tony Geoghegan, director of Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI), said it would only be possible to make inroads into the country’s drug problem if the promised resources were put in place.

“There is a lack of commitment to follow through on the strategy. It’s lost its impetus and the Government has become complacent about it,” he said.

“This is serious and unless the Government takes it on board the goodwill partnership that has existed with the voluntary and community sector will break down,” he warned.

He was speaking as figures from the charity’s annual review showed demand for drug treatment is rising by 15%. Last year the service treated 4,000 individual drug users in Dublin, 600 of whom were new to the service.

The ambitious National Drugs Strategy, launched in 2001, set out 100 actions for Government departments and State agencies.

Despite its initial impact, Mr Geoghehan claims “absolutely nothing” has been done to provide ancillary services such as counselling or training.

“In the drugs arena almost 7,000 heroin users remain outside of the treatment net and extensive waiting lists still exist,” he explained.

“The Government claims this results from a lack of resources, but with the coffers bursting at the seams, it seems like a lack of interest in the lives of those affected by this very human tragedy,” he added.

The service provides 150 needle exchanges each day, but says it is unable to keep up with demand.

“We applied to expand the needle exchange programme but were informed the health board had a moratorium on any new developments,” he said.

He called on the Government to provide night-time, weekend and pharmacy-based exchange programmes to back up existing services.

“There will always be some level of drug problems, but we don’t need to have the extent of problems we are having,” he said.

The Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Noel Ahern, said the Government was “in no way” turning its back on the strategy.

“The Government continues to take the issue of drug misuse very seriously and will continue to push forward with the implementation of the National Drugs Strategy as a priority,” he said.

A mid-term review of the strategy will examine progress to date and “enable priorities for future action to be identified and a re-focusing of the strategy, if necessary,” the minister added.

Drug treatment numbers

14,452 - heroin users in Ireland.

7,000 - methadone programmes.

7,000 - untreated.

26,000 - visits to Merchant Quay Ireland’s health promotion unit in 2003, compared to 20,000 in 2001.