Publicans to help combat heroin use

THE escalation of heroin use in a Co Waterford town has prompted publicans to print 10,000 beer mats listing places where users of the class A drug can get help.

The initiative is being run in conjunction with the gardaí but is being funded by the vintners’ federation in the Dungarvan area.

It gets under way next weekend and will involve the beer mats being distributed to nearly 50 pubs. The campaign will also increase education and awareness among pub staff and is a follow-on from a seminar held by publicans in the local Park Hotel last October which focused on issues such as public order problems caused by people who had consumed too much alcohol.