More than 40 per cent of 57 young people identified as heroin users in a 1981 study of a Dublin community have since died, a conference was told at the weekend.
The original survey was carried out by a local curate and three community workers, Mr Barry Cullen, of the Department of Social Studies at Trinity College Dublin, told the seminar on young people and drugs. The south inner-city community had a population of 1,200 and an estimated youth population of 200.
Forty-two per cent of the heroin users or 13 per cent of the population of 15- to 24-year-olds in that community in 1981 are now dead. A further four are seriously ill.
"Think of the effect of the loss through death of such a percentage of young people," Mr Cullen said. "Think of the number of children who have been bereaved who are being raised by grannies, relatives or in care. Think of the number of families who have experienced two, three or even more deaths. Think of this experience being replicated in five other nearby flats complexes."
Mr Cullen was addressing a seminar, "Young People and Drugs: Critical Issues for Policy," hosted in the university by the Children's Centre and Addiction Studies Course of TCD Department of Social Studies. The seminar was attended by community workers, youth workers, academics and health board personnel.
Mr Cullen said the "drugs war" should be replaced by policies capable of convincing the residents of communities affected by heroin addiction that, with institutional support, they could obtain real benefits from the growing economy.
He said anyone who had observed Dublin's drug problem over the last 25 years "could not but be appalled" by the lack of creativity and innovation shown at institutional level. The very existence of a serious drug problem was not properly conceded until the publication of the Rabbitte report last year, he said.
Mr Cullen said there was a need to see the drug problem "as a collection of local drugs problems that differ across space and time, often requiring different policy responses and strategies." This reality has now been recognised by the Government, with the establishment of local drugs task forces.
He also said there was a need to distinguish between recreational drug use and problem drug use. There was no comparison between the occasional recreational use of cannabis, ecstasy or alcohol and the habitual use of injectable opiates, Mr Cullen said.
Community and voluntary agencies had shown more insight and innovation than institutions. "There needs to be a better resourcing of local support systems for young people who have or who are about to have drugs problems. Maybe harm reduction messages are best provided by people who already operate within the drug scene. Maybe counselling and helpline services need to be more accessible and staffed by people who can be trusted by young drug users," he added.
