Experts agree heroin crisis on way to becoming an epidemic

The report, which you can read in full in the latest issue of Hot Press, reveals that, at close to 30,000, the real number of heroin addicts and users in almost double the official estimates. It also confirms that there are heroin blackspots all over Ireland, including Kildare, Portlaoise, Athlone, Dundalk, Sligo, Galway, Kerry, Cork and Waterford, among others.

The Hot Press report includes testimony from doctors covering the country, who are alarmed at the government's lack of investment in, and acknowledgement of, the growing heroin epidemic. Dr. Garrett McGovern, a Dublin G.P. who has specialised in the treatment of heroin addiction since 1998, expresses his concern about the serious heroin problems in parts of Ireland where there was little or no availability of the drug a few years ago.
"We've a really serious situation that neither the Government nor the Health Service Executive (HSE) are showing any signs of tackling in an effective way," he says.

Another medical source confirms that heroin is having a ripple effect in other areas.
"There is the very real threat…of an HIV epidemic", they insist. "Another thing that the country’s ripe for is an explosion in acquisitive crime".

Hot Press talks to Tony Geoghegan, director of Merchants Quay Ireland, a voluntary organisation providing a wide range of services for the homeless and the thousands of people who are addicted to heroin. He confirms the appalling inadequacy of the current approach to drug users seeking help.
"There’s a waiting list of over 12 months in Athlone and a two-year waiting list in Waterford. They then have to bus them 30 kilometres to the next town to get a pharmacist to dispense the methadone."

In a related interview in Hot Press, Paul Williams discusses the main players in the Irish drugs scene, the futility of chasing small-time cannabis users and the inherent desire of people to get high.

On the huge amount of resources being spent on chasing small-time dealers, including dealers of cannabis, Williams makes an interesting observation: "I don't think there are all that many being done for small amounts of cannabis any more. I don't see it coming through the courts. It's so pervasive now they couldn’t possibly lift everybody (laughs)." And he insists: "If they started doing everybody who's doing drugs in Irish society today, the courts would be completely log-jammed with cases. They wouldn’t be able to function."

Quizzed as to whether the desire to use drugs can ever be eliminated, Williams is unequivocal: "My honest belief is absolutely not… Since the beginning of civilisation, every generation has had some way of getting stoned or getting drunk every now and again. We live in a society where there are certain things that are legal and certain things that aren’t. There will be some victories in the so-called war against drugs, but I don’t think the war is a winnable one. People will break the law to take drugs because they want to."

Perhaps, Hot Press argues in its focus on drugs and in particular on heroin, it is time to change the law.

Read the full report in the latest issue, out now.