This article is from page 2 of the 2009-06-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
a | wouldn’t be surprised if 10-year-olds were involved (in drug abuse).”
He said that drugs are widely avail-
able.
“In the past, it was always thought that heroin was available just in the larger cities but there is no such place as a quiet place any more,” he said.
“Drugs are available in the most ru- ral parts of Clare as much as in Lim- erick city,’ he said.
‘The big need in the mid-west is to have a drug detox service based in all the main centres – Limerick, Ennis, Nenagh.
“The Health Service Executive (HSE) has plans for it, but in the cur- rent economic climate, it may be put on the long finger,’ he said.
Mr Duffy said that the spread of drugs is linked to the increased de- mand.
“It’s a supply and demand issue. If there was no demand, there wouldn’t be need for supply. It’s the people who create demand who create the supply,” he said.
“l’m concerned there are people out there who should know better, who are stoking up the demand side which leads to misery,’ he added.
‘People who dabble in recreational drugs think that a let-off at weekends is to dabble in drugs. They have to bear in mind that the consequences
of that leads to problems,” he added.
“We have a very high tolerance of drugs. Social acceptability doesn’t allow it,” he said.
While gardai in Clare have repeat- edly expressed concern about the increased availability of heroin and cocaine, Mr Duffy said, “I couldn’t say it’s one or the other. Someone who starts on soft drugs graduates up along.”
Services, like Bushypark addiction treatment centre in Ennis, have been provided in an effort to help people get off drugs, such has been the spi- raling use.