Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I agree with everything the Deputy said. There is no doubt that, while the gardaí and the customs and excise service have been very successful, large quantities of drugs are still getting through, and the price on the street is probably the most accurate measure of that. Any drugs seizure can seriously disrupt a given operation, put people out of business or foster disputes between them. However, others always seem willing to move into the breach.

I agree with the Deputy that the image of cocaine as clean and harmless is absolutely false. I do not wish to defend heroin, but cocaine is a far more dangerous substance. Many of the problems of heroin relate to how it is taken, the dirty needles, drug-taking paraphernalia and infections, with people running down their health. However, regarding the substances themselves, cocaine is far more serious in the long term to someone's well-being and health.

That is not the image, and many people see themselves as recreational users who would look down their noses at heroin users. One of our problems is trying to attract such people into services since those that we have so far use the same premises. We find that some of those middle-class people do not want to go near a drug treatment service on the basis that they are not really druggies. However, the damage that they are causing themselves is extremely serious. We have tried awareness campaigns, the last of which advertised on television, beer mats and posters. I am sure that Deputy O'Shea will remember the "Jack and Jill" series. It was targeted at pubs and night clubs used by 18 to 35 year olds. We have tried to reach them in their own language to make plain the damage that they are causing to themselves.

The problem is that they do not see the difficulty. They are still quite slow in coming forward for treatment. There is no substitution treatment like methadone for heroin. There are services, but many involve counselling, alternative therapies, acupuncture and so on. The national drugs strategy team and the national advisory committee on drugs are working together to produce proposals and we will see what they do. However, we must get those people into services targeted at them. It has been slow for the penny to drop.

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