This article is from page 8 of the 2011-07-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THE number of heroin addicts attending an Ennis residential treatment centre quadrupled last year compared to the previous year.
According to staff at the centre – whose main client base is Clare, Limerick and Galway – heroin is now the most prevalent dangerous drug in the county. This echoes the views of gardaí across Clare, who have expressed concern over the spread of heroin, particularly in towns.
According to Bushypark, the use of cocaine has re-emerged as a major concern, following a spell where its use was reduced.
The abuse of prescription drugs has also become more prevalent among those getting treatment at the centre.
Overall, there was an increase of four per cent in the number of admissions at the centre last year.
The number of people treated for gambling addictions increased by three per cent in 2010.
“We have had a huge increase in screenings last year; people looking for help,” said the manager of the centre Margaret Nash.
284 people attended for assessment in 2010, compared with 264 in 2009. A total of 504 calls were made to the centre in 2010, while another 220 people called to the centre for help.
“158 people showed up for admission in 2010 (compared to 148 in 2009). That’s a full house,” she said.
“We now have a counsellor available from 8am to 9pm,” she said.
Weekends tend to spur people to seek help from the centre as the numbers of calls received on Monday evenings and Tuesdays are generally higher than later in the week.
“We welcome that people are looking for help; taking the first steps,” said Ms Nash. “Through assessment, we highlight the nature of the problem and the extent of it.”
Ms Nash said that there has been a significant increase in the use of heroin and while the use of cocaine dipped over the past couple of years, it has re-emerged.
“There has been a huge increase in heroin and cocaine is increasing again. The Clare People can reveal that 33 people were treated for heroin addiction at the Bushypark Treatment Centre last year, compared with eight in 2009.
“We would suggest that cocaine was very prevalent. It died down. This was down to two reasons: there was a bit of a crackdown on it because of the products from the headshops. They were much cheaper so there was no need to be buying cocaine. The recession certainly would have brought down the market and would have killed the yuppie market around it. There were a few high profile casualties. For one-and-a-half to two years, figures for cocaine us- ers were well down. We feel it was replaced by head shop products,” she said.
However, she said that the use of cocaine has risen again during the past eight or nine months.
“The main drug of choice is heroin. It has quadrupled in use since 2009. Cocaine has stabilised. In 2009 there were eight clients (at the centre) whose primary drug of choice was heroin. There were 33 in 2010. We have seen a dovetailing of cocaine during that time. We had a number of head shop users – seven – in 2009 for the first time. It pushed them over the edge,” she said.
“Heroin is the biggest in Ennis and Limerick,” she said.