Cocaine is "dusting every town, village and suburb in this State", said Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny last night when he launched the Rutland Centre's addiction awareness week. He said our "alarming ambivalence" to alcohol was now extending to cocaine.
"Cocaine is vanishing up the noses of professional and respectable and successful Ireland with alacrity," Mr Kenny said. "Every time you do cocaine, whether it be in the local pub or at a party or in the comfort of your own living room, you are playing a personal role in the drug industry in this country - that's in the rise of the gangland empires, the turf wars, the hits, the torture, the executions, the lot."
The Rutland Centre's addiction awareness week will highlight the increasing number of female alcoholics and the role of wine in their addiction.
Dr Stephen Rowen, Rutland Centre's clinical director, said women were the main casualty in the growing trend towards increased wine consumption
On Wednesday, US clinician Dr Stephanie Covington, who has acted as a consultant to the Betty Ford Treatment Centre, will speak about "women, wine and wasted lives" at the Milltown Park conference centre in Dublin.
On Friday, an advice workshop will be held at the Rutland Centre in Templeogue, Dublin, for people who are concerned about the drinking habits of a woman they know.
This afternoon, the Rutland Centre is holding a similar workshop for people concerned about the drinking habits of young people. The awareness week is also focusing on young people and alcohol.
At last night's launch, Dr Rowen said Ireland had the highest percentage of binge-drinking teenagers out of 35 European countries. "In Ireland, incredibly, 58 out of every 100 drinking occasions by a man, and 30 out of every 100 by a woman is a binge-drinking occasion."
Also last night, Dr Derek Freedman, a specialist in sexually transmitted diseases, called for a "a basic sexual etiquette" for young people. He said the first experience of sex for some people was "enveloped in the nausea of a hangover".
