Drugs: media is playing catch-up

THE launch of the National Drugs Awareness Strategy has to be welcomed, as does the media coverage that has accompanied it. However, I feel the media may be arriving a little late to the issue.

In 2005, I was chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs that launched its seventh report entitled The Treatment of Cocaine Addiction with Particular Reference to the Irish Experience.

This report received little media coverage at the time, even though it dealt with an issue that was of profound importance.