Written answers

Wednesday, 8 February 2006

Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

National Drugs Strategy

10:00 pm

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 154: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he intends to strengthen the campaign against the use of cocaine following the recent findings of the all Ireland drug prevalence survey, which showed that 3% of people here have used cocaine at some stage of their lives. [4344/06]

Photo of Noel AhernNoel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The figure of 3% for the number of people who had ever used cocaine is about average in terms of European figures. The national drugs awareness campaign, run by the health promotion unit of the Department of Health and Children, focused specifically on cocaine in 2004-05. Its well-received campaign sought to dispel the image that cocaine was a clean and safe drug with few detrimental consequences. Also, all schools now have substance misuse prevention programmes on their curricula.

There is no substitution treatment drug for cocaine and existing services such as counselling and behavioural therapy are the best treatments available. Additional counsellors and outreach workers have been recruited by the health services in recent years and they will play an important role in helping those who present for treatment arising from cocaine use. It is also open to local and regional drugs task forces to include projects aimed at tackling cocaine in their plans.

In 2005 I launched four pilot cocaine treatment projects to examine different methods of treatment for cocaine use, as well as a training initiative focusing on frontline workers. Funding of almost €400,000 was provided by me to support these initiatives. The four projects deal with the following cohorts of cocaine users: intravenous cocaine users; poly-drug users using cocaine; problematic intranasal cocaine users; and problematic female cocaine users. Following the evaluation of the outcomes of these initiatives, I will decide on whether it would be beneficial to expand these projects to other areas. I am confident that a range of measures is in place to tackle the problems that will be posed by cocaine in the coming period.

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