Groups representing families of addicts hit out at being left out of forming national drugs strategy

Cindy Barry of Family Addiction Support Network said demand for their services was increasing, driven by cocaine and polydrug use, drug debt intimidation, gang grooming of children and intergenerational trauma. File picture: iStock

Groups representing families affected by addiction and people who have used drugs have strongly criticised the Department of Health in excluding them from developing the next national drugs strategy (NDS).

Family Addiction Recovery Ireland (FARI) and Uisce appeared before the first public sitting of a reconstituted Oireachtas Committee on Drugs, charged with making recommendations to the Government on the report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use, which reported in January 2024.

FARI and Uisce join Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign in criticising the decision to exclude them from the committee overseeing the development of the next NDS.

Uisce co-ordinator Andy O’Hara said their exclusion was “deeply concerning”, pointing out their involvement in the development of the previous NDS. “The State cannot simply hand-pick individuals with lived experience that it finds palatable,” Mr O’Hara said.

FARI, which replaced the now defunct National Family Support Network, said it was not offered the place its predecessor had in developing the NDS.

“We have been excluded,” said FARI spokesman Michael Mason. “The NDS will have no input of the lived experience of families or people who use drugs.” 

Earlier this month, Citywide, representing community drug projects, revealed their exclusion.

The Department of Health said the three organisations were “respected stakeholders” of the NDS and that, along with other civil society organisations, were part of the independent evaluation of the current strategy and were involved in the consultations on the next strategy.

Oireachtas Drugs Committee

At a hearing on Thursday, the Oireachtas Drugs Committee also heard from a number of other groups, including Coolmine, Northstar Family Support Project, in Limerick, the Rise Foundation and Family Addiction Support Network (FASN), in the north east.

Anita Harris of Coolmine, which delivers 18 recovery projects across the East, Mid-West and South-West, highlighted the scarcity of services for children and wider families of parents who are using substances.

She said there were only two community-based mother-and-child services and none for fathers and children. She “urgently" recommended the next NDS take action in this area, which required significant investment in community-based services, including early intervention.

Cindy Barry of FASN said recent research by FARI suggested that there could be up to 280,000 family members affected by drug and alcohol addiction in Ireland.

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She said FASN was at “breaking point” and that volunteer “burnout” was a real problem. She said demand was increasing, driven by cocaine and polydrug use, drug debt intimidation, gang grooming of children and intergenerational trauma.

She called on the committee to ensure families are “no longer the forgotten stakeholders in addiction policy”.

Joe Slattery, co-ordinator of Northstar, said many families are “fearful of violence in the home” and of “threats from drug dealers”. He said addiction “tears families apart” due to a severe lack of services. 

He said these families had “complex needs” and suffered stigma. Mr O'Hara said social factors, such as the housing crisis, that were driving drug use, drug deaths and drug dealing had to be addressed.