Ms Anita Harris:

With regard to the whole policy, when I look at national drugs strategy after national drugs strategy early intervention barely gets recognition. Realistically it should be a pillar all by itself. Earlier we spoke about parents who use drugs. Their kids are at the biggest risk. Where is the early intervention happening there? We can talk about general school approaches and going into schools. We just need to remember that any single person who uses drugs does not think they will become addicted. Regardless of whether they are 13, 14 or 15 years of age, many people who use drugs will not become addicted. It will be recreational drug use. They will start and they will finish and they will get on with their lives. There will, however, be that certain proportion, as Mr. O'Hara was saying, that all possess certain different characteristics such as coming from the same trauma or the same backgrounds. These are the children we need to target. There need to be targeted approaches. I mentioned the types of programmes for working specifically with parents who use substances. They are raising their kids and they use a substance. There needs to be targeted programmes looking at how do we get in at these parents to support them. That way we will support their kids instead of it becoming intergenerational. There is no denying the intergenerational cycle of addiction.

We carry out a lot of research at Coolmine. It consistently shows that in 80% to 90% of cases, one or both parents will have had addiction issues. We cannot ignore evidence that keeps circulating in this regard, so we really need to focus on the prevention.