Big increase in prisons drug treatment programmes

There has been a significant increase in the availability of drugs treatment in prisons in Ireland, a Europe-wide report found today.

Like most countries in the European Union, Ireland has witnessed an increase in drugs crimes since the late 1990s, according to the annual report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe, published today by the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA).

But there is a growing view across the continent that problem drug users are ‘patients’ with a treatable medical disorder.

In Ireland, as in other countries, it is also increasingly acknowledged that prisoners have the same rights as the rest of the population concerning healthcare, including assistance and treatment for drug users, the report said.

While options for prisoners – particularly substituting drugs with medication - remain restricted, Ireland has recorded ‘considerable increases’ in the availability of such treatment in jail.

The report also found there was a broad political consensus across Europe over diverting drug-using offenders from imprisonment to treatment, with the treatment option providing a more cost-efficient way of sentencing in countries with overcrowded prisons.

But it said very few programmes specifically targeted the needs of young offenders.

And convicted Irish drug users, along with those from Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and Norway, who are willing to begin treatment sometimes find it difficult to secure a place at a treatment centre, the report found.

The new EU drugs action plan 2005-2008 is calling on all member states to make effective use of, and develop further alternatives to, prison for drug abusers who commit drug-related offences.

EMCDDA director Wolfgang Gotz said: “Diverting drug-using offenders to treatment can contribute to reducing crime and other harms to society as well as to helping those with drug problems improve their health and social well-being.

“Adequate treatment facilities are essential to underpin this approach.

“But motivation on the part of the offender is also a vital component in making it a success,” he added.

Cannabis is still the most widespread narcotic cited in drug offences across Europe, and the proportion of crimes involving it has increased in Ireland since 1998, the report found.

The proportion of drugs offences involving cocaine increased in every country except for Germany, while the proportion of heroin-related crimes has decreased in all countries except in Austria and the UK.