Drug treatment centre calls for national clean needles services

SERVICES should be set up across the country to provide clean needles to problem drug users, according to the nation’s biggest voluntary drug treatment centre.

Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) said it understood many people objected to such facilities as they believed they endorsed drug use. In advance of publishing its annual review for 2006 today, MQI director Tony Geoghegan said needle exchanges were needed not only to reduce the risk of lethal diseases, such as hepatitis C and HIV, but to provide a first point of contact between addicts and treatment.

“In order to effectively address this problem we need significant investment in new first-line harm reduction services across all affected areas so that users can, at the earliest opportunity, be brought into the network of treatment services in their own local areas,” he said.

“Syringe exchange services are effective not only in minimising the serious risk of blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis, but also in encouraging users to take up drug treatment and to work towards a better life.”

He said as far as he knew, there were no needle exchange services outside Dublin, despite 2002 figures showing there were about 2,500 heroin users outside Dublin.

Mr Geoghegan said he felt these figures were outdated.

A report on drug rehabilitation, published last June, said the number of new heroin users entering treatment jumped by almost 500% between 1998 and 2005. The report said this trend posed “major challenges” in terms of treatment and rehabilitation.

“Despite needle exchanges being a priority in the National Drugs Strategy and again emphasised in the mid-term review, there is still parts of the city, notably places like Crumlin, which has a serious drug problem, having no needle-exchange services.

“And, once you go outside Dublin, there’s very few needle exchanges, so consequently people are coming into the city centre.” He said methadone services had improved in parts of the country, but there were still issues of people being able to access them.

The MQI report shows 1,754 injecting drug users, predominantly heroin, came to MQI for the first time last year.

Mr Geoghegan said this was a high number, but said it was partly due to a new data collection system.

He explained while 20% were injecting cocaine, this was on top of injecting heroin.

The report shows MQI, has seen a jump in the amount of eastern European nationals attending its services.

An average of 20 to 30 homeless Eastern Europeans came to the project daily in October 2005.

A year later, this number went to more than 50 a day on weekdays and 100 on Sundays.