John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I launched bulletin 4 of the all-Ireland drug prevalence survey, focusing on cocaine, on behalf of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs last month and I am fully aware of its findings. This bulletin gives an in-depth analysis of cocaine use in the country and helps to deepen our understanding of such use.

While the findings that 5.3% of all adults aged 15 to 64 years and 8.2% of those aged 15 to 34 years had used cocaine are serious, it must be borne in mind that these figures are for lifetime use and therefore include many people who have only tried cocaine once or twice. Of more significant importance are the findings in respect of recent and current use, that is, those who had taken cocaine in the past year and past month. The figures for these two groups are 1.7% and 0.5% of the overall population, respectively. The corresponding figures for younger adults aged 15 to 34 years indicate that cocaine use is predominantly a younger adult phenomenon.

While the proportion of the population using cocaine on a regular basis is relatively small, there are clearly concerns about the health consequences for the people who are taking the drug and the criminal activity generated around the supply of cocaine and other drugs. At the same time, it is important to note that some findings of the survey are encouraging, particularly the numbers stopping their use of the drug and the increased recognition of the risks involved in taking cocaine. The percentage of those users who had stopped using cocaine increased from 62% in 2002-03 to 82% of all adults and 78% of those aged 15 to 34 years in 2006-07. In this regard "health reasons" was given as the most common cause for stopping. I hope this indicates that drugs awareness messages are beginning to hit home.

Tackling cocaine use is a priority for the Government and the implementation of the recommendations of the joint National Advisory Committee on Drugs-national drugs strategy team report, An Overview of Cocaine Use in Ireland, published in 2007, is an important part of the overall approach.

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