Government response to drugs study inadequate - Ó Snodaigh
Published: 25 January, 2008
Sinn Féin Justice Spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has described the response from the government to the study showing a significant increase in the use of cocaine as inadequate. Deputy Ó Snodaigh said the problem of drugs in Ireland must be treated as an emergency.
Speaking today he said, "The report itself gives a slight misread of the
reality. As the authors themselves have acknowledged when we extract
the over forty age group the percentage of people who have used drugs
increases significantly. And when you extract the under fifteen age
group this figure takes yet another significant increase showing that
the problem is significant in the fifteen to forty age bracket. And
while the use of ecstasy has decreased this is simply because cocaine
has over taken it and become more rampant than ecstasy ever was.
"The government's response on Morning Ireland this morning to this
report is completely inadequate. The Minister rightly advocates
highlighting the dangers of drugs to our young people but this can be
only one part of a much wider strategy to tackle drugs if we are serious
about it.
"Awareness campaigns have been tried and tested before yet the drugs
crisis continues. These campaigns are toothless unless they are
complemented with measures to tackle both the supply and demand for
drugs and with effective detox measures for those wishing to come off
drugs.
"The Minister's response is typical of the approach the Government has
taken over the past number of years while cocaine has taken a hold on
every community in the state. They have turned their backs and denied
the extent of the problem at every juncture. And even now after all the
recent cocaine related deaths the government are foolhardedly content
that awareness raising measures are enough to contain the problem.
"When will this Government wake up and realise that the drugs crisis
must be treated as an emergency. Adequate resources must be put into
all five pillars of The National Drugs Strategy - supply reduction,
prevention, treatment, research and rehabilitation.
"If anything else was killing so many people in this state it would be
treated as an emergency. Even the threat of foot and mouth, which has
not killed anyone in Ireland, was treated as a bigger emergency than the
drugs crisis which has killed countless people."
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