SPECIAL REPORT, DAY 2: Dedicated drug agency ‘needed to tackle heroin’

Ireland should establish a Drugs Safety Agency, similar to the Road Safety Authority model, if officials are serious about slashing drug-related deaths and changing attitudes to drug-taking in this country, according to Cork’s top garda.

Chief Supt Mick Finn was speaking after a special joint policing committee meeting on heroin in Cork, at which he said “education is the key to reducing the numbers using heroin”.

“How do you stop people making the same mistakes and going down this road?” he asked.