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 Carlito
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Registered: 03/05/05
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 If drugs are your fix, you can get anything you want
#6326801 - 12/02/06 10:17 AM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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http://www.waterford-news.ie/news/story.asp?j=24036&cat=news
If drugs are your fix, you can get anything you want
PAT O’Neill, co-odinator of the Substance Misuse Team in the city, agrees that all drugs are available for those who want them and those involved in the drug culture can get anything that they want.
Concerned about the availability of hard drugs, he points out that alcohol is still the primary substance of misuse.
Speaking to the Water-ford News & Star, he said that cannabis was the next most abused drug though a number of those using it did not see it as a drug. According to the feedback he was receiving ecstasy was not as fashionable as it used to be and had been replaced by cocaine and there was evidence to prove there was an increase in the use and availability of both cocaine and heroin.
Waterford and Carlow are the only two areas in the South East to operate Methadone Clinics but the problem of opiate abuse was now becoming so prevalent that a new Methadone Clinic would be opening shortly in Wex-ford.
Currently twenty people are on the methadone programme in Waterford but despite a ten-month waiting list the most that can ever be on the programme is 35 if guidelines are to be adhered to.
While methadone is seen as a ‘quick fix’ for heroin abuse, the highly addictive substance can often cause way more problems than it resolves.
In Waterford there is evidence that drug pushers peddle their wares outside the clinic, while Pat O’Neill has also heard of cases where methadone is being sold by a handful of manipulative and devious addicts with their own agendas.
The majority of opiate abusers, he said, were slow to trade one addiction for another, neither were they prepared to give up time for twice weekly blood tests and their once weekly clinic visit. Addicts also say that even ‘cold turkey’ is easier than the methadone route.
Recruiting doctors to conduct methadone clinics outside of Dublin is difficult but there have also been difficulties in Water-ford and other parts of the South East getting pharmacies to operate the methadone service.
“We were going out knocking on doors looking for them but now they have two in Waterford who are dispensing methadone - so it is not a problem at the moment.”
An opiate substitute in tablet form, which is not as addictive as methadone, is about to become more widely used but until that arrives here operational problems are likely to continue.
Despite the drug seizures and the supports available to addicts, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) 2006 report paints a grim picture. It was revealed last week that Ireland was near the top of the European drug table for cocaine use but lower down the table for ecstasy use and in the bottom half of the table for cannabis use.
It also revealed that 2% of 15 to 34 year olds in Ireland had taken cocaine in the last year, placing us in joint fifth position out of 27 countries.
The Health Research Board (HRB), which supplied the EMCDDA with Irish data, said cocaine trafficking had increased significantly in recent years, reflected in seizures, prosecutions and the falling price of the drug.
The HRB’s Johnny Connolly said 8% of people receiving treatment for cocaine in Ireland reported it as their main problem drug, compared with an EU average of 12%.
He went on to say that the small rise in drug related deaths in Ireland in 2003 reflected the European trend identified by the EMCDDA.
Ireland, he stated, was categorised as a medium prevalence country for HIV (between 5-10% among drug injecting drug users and a high prevalence country for Hepatitis C (over 60% of injecting users.
The report noted a rise in global heroin production and said bumper crops in Afghanistan would result in an even greater supply of high purity heroin in 2007 and beyond.
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