Call for needle exchange service

DRUGS strategy minister Pat Carey yesterday called on the Prison Service to examine the introduction of needle exchanges for injecting drug users in jail.

He said a report he commissioned had recommended that all the relevant agencies — including the Prison Service — get together to see how such a system could be put in place.

Mr Carey said he backed key recommendations in the report, including an expansion of needle exchange services throughout the country. Needle exchanges provide clean syringes to users in return for old ones, in a bid to limit the spread of infectious diseases.