Drug strategy to target alcohol

ALCOHOL is a far bigger menace in Irish society than illegal drugs and tackling the problem will form a key part of a new National Drug Strategy to be launched later this year, a government minister has said.

Minister of State at the Department of Health, Roisín Shortall, who was speaking at the launch of a mobile primary care clinic for homeless people and street workers, commended the Irish Examiner’s special investigation of the country’s relationship with drink.

“We have a very serious problem with drug addiction in this country, but we also have to examine our own attitude to alcohol. Alcohol is very often a gateway to illegal drug use, but there is also a huge number of people who never touch illegal drugs but have a huge problem with alcohol,” she said.

The Mobile Health Clinic is operated by Safetynet, Dublin Simon Community, Chrysalis and the Order of Malta Ireland.

It was piloted in April last year and, during the first eight months, provided medical care to 288 patients and operated 66 GP clinics.

Roughly one-in-three of the medical problems seen by the clinic were addiction related, followed by respiratory-related illnesses at almost 20%.

Ms Shortall said we needed to become more proactive in limiting the availability of alcohol. “It is a huge problem right across the country, young people having easy access to alcohol. There is an important policing issue involved here, because some parents, while concerned that their children are not into drugs, are less worried about them drinking alcohol. We need to challenge this attitude,” she said.

Ms Shortall said a far harder line had to be taken against off-licences and supermarkets who breached the law on the sale of alcohol. While the west led the way in the area of enforcement, the rate in Dublin was much lower.

“We need to take on this issue, because alcohol is doing a huge amount of damage to individuals and families and is a huge burden on the health services,” she said.

Ms Shortall is also intent on addressing “big gaps” in the provision of primary care services, an area that falls under her remit.

She said she did not want the situation to continue where some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country had the weakest primary care services. She said the 22-year-old GPs contract was no longer fit for purpose in terms of providing an inclusive and modern health service.