Drugs problem at boiling point

THE drugs problem in this country is now so bad that doctors’ surgeries are been raided and violated in an unashamed fashion.

Some doctors cannot hold medicines in their surgeries any longer because they will be taken by addicts who are desperate and will go to any lengths. This will mean that patients are at risk because doctors have no medical intervention to hand, should a patient need immediate treatment by a practitioner.

Instead of doctors doing more for patients when they visit them, they are now severely handicapped, unable to lay their hands on any medicine unless a pharmacy is near them which may also be subject to raids. The problem with a lot of people today is that instant gratification is a way of life and drugs are at the core of it, in a chemically dependent society on the road to hell. Whether it’s alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs or licensed pharmaceuticals, thousands of people are severely addicted. Many are so bad that they are too far gone and are without much hope, while they rot on waiting lists for treatment and psychological support.

Education in schools is not working to warn people of the dangers of drug abuse and public information campaigns go in one ear and out the other with no brain in the middle. The drug problem is arguably at boiling point, reaching every echelon of our society that has conveniently buried away the issue from open discussion in an eerie shroud of silence. Our supine government need to take the issue of addiction and the high level of criminality that goes with it far more seriously.

We now live in a very different Ireland — much has changed, it seems, and for the worst, undoubtedly.

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork