09/07/2010

Drugs Misuse 'Going Far Beyond Heroin'

Irish Government figures are masking the fact that almost all heroin users were now 'poly-drug users'.

That's according the a new study that - while showing a fall in the number receiving treatment for heroin addiction - is painting a misleading picture of the drugs problem.

The new research from NUI Maynooth was undertaken over 15-months ago in Dublin's southwest inner suburbs and found almost all drug users, including heroin addicts, used a 'cocktail' of substances.

It also found that younger users were shunning heroin in favour of crack and powder cocaine, and 'street' and prescription tranquillisers.

The study, published yesterday, also shows that heroin users who were officially in treatment, usually involving methadone, were still using other drugs and continued to use heroin.

The study, A Dizzying Array of Substances; An Ethnographic Study of Drug Use in the Canal Communities by Dr Jamie Saris and Fiona O'Reilly for the Department of Anthropology at NUI Maynooth, says government drug policy is failing to address current drug usage.

The survey of 92 heroin and methadone users in the canal area found that although 98% were receiving methadone, 63% had used heroin in the previous three months, 30% had used crack cocaine, and 22% had used powder cocaine.

(BMcC/KMcA)

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