Drugs strategy - Child drug use terrifying development
The Matt Talbot Adolescent Service (MTAS), which caters for 14 to 23 year olds in Cork city, reported in 2006 that the youngest people referred to it for drug treatment were 12 year olds. This year, however, children as young as eight years of age are showing the onset of drug use.
That eight year olds are using drugs in Cork city should be seen as a truly appalling development. The problem is compounded by an alarming trend that younger addicts are showing signs of violent criminal behaviour. Children are smoking heroine and using cocaine, Valium or Xanax, along with alcohol. Many of the youthful drug offenders have begun carrying weapons to defend themselves against drug dealers to whom they owe money.
Authorities at MTAS have also expressed serious concerns about increasing levels of suicidal behaviour among young people. They report that about half of those under 18 attending the centre in January had already tried to commit suicide.
Those young people had been exhibiting symptoms of extreme anxiety, depression, visual and auditory hallucinations, as well as high levels of aggressive and challenging behaviour. Yet all of them had been unable to get immediate access to psychiatric assessment.
The drug problem is clearly growing at a frightening rate. Referrals to MTAS increased by 70% in the first six months of 2009. Over 90% of those were multi-drug users, and a shocking 62% of those in the 18 to 23 age bracket were heroine users.
A significant number of the referrals under 18 had actually smoked heroin. Some 42% of the young people were carrying concealed weapons.
There are currently an estimated 14,500 heroin users in Ireland, but only 28 detox beds in the country to deal with this problem. For those seeking help to tackle their problem, there is a waiting list of up to one year for treatment in the public healthcare system.
Edel Foley, the clinical manager of MTAS, has warned that the level of heroin use among young people needs urgent attention and resources. She has welcomed the ban on head shop products, but much more needs to be done to tackle the growing drug problems.
In recent days politicians have been trying to excuse their failure to foresee the banking crash on the basis that even so-called experts did not foresee what was about to happen. Only an idiot could fail to see that the current drug situation – in which children are being enticed into the use of extremely dangerous drugs – is a terrifying development that screams out for prompt action.
