Draft drugs strategy could 'unravel' decades of progress by community projects

Department of Health assistant secretary David Leach said there had been 'a change in the nature of the drug problem', which was no longer confined to deprived communities but was now in 'every community'. File picture: iStock

The Government’s draft drugs strategy threatens to “unravel” decades of community-led progress on drug issues, local task forces have warned.

The Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces (LDATF) Chairpersons Network said the proposed document sidelines the role of task forces and dismantles community structures built up since the mid-1990s.

LDATFs join voluntary organisations representing community drug projects, families of drug users, and users of drugs urging a redraft of the proposed National Drugs Strategy 2026-2029.

Aoife Bairéad, chair of the Canal Communities LDATF in Dublin south inner city, said: “Local task force groups have been at the coal face of drug response for decades and have intimate understanding and knowledge of the issues. 

"To consign these groups to the margins fails to understand the key role these groups have played in informing policy, and at a very practical level, in supporting communities, families, and individuals caught up in drug addiction.” 

She said recommendation eight of the Citizens Assembly on Drugs, which reported in January 2024, stated that the local task forces and community groups have “a crucial role” in responding to drugs and in implementing drug strategies. 

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Ms Bairéad also cited recommendation 15 of the assembly report, which said drug policies should prioritise the needs of “vulnerable and marginalised groups and disadvantaged communities”.

Eddie Mullins, chair of Clondalkin LDATF in west Dublin, said task forces participated in the assembly, had welcomed its recommendations, and added that "if the Government is going to ignore some of its key recommendations, they need to make clear as to why”.

Last month Citywide, an umbrella organisation of community drug projects, Family Addiction Recovery Ireland, and Uisce, representing users of drugs, described the draft strategy as "fundamentally flawed".

At the Oireachtas Committee on Drugs last February, chair Gary Gannon, Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central, said the draft was the first of these strategies since 1996 that did not reference the persistent link between poverty, inequality and drug-related harm.

Ann Greaves, Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Fingal East, said the task forces had “basically been written out of the draft strategy in terms of funding and their position”.

Department of Health assistant secretary David Leach told the committee that it was only a draft and a public consultation would follow. He said there had been "a change in the nature of the drug problem", which was no longer confined to deprived communities but was now in "every community".

• Cormac O’Keeffe is the Irish Examiner security correspondent