Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne yesterday told an audience at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, that law enforcement alone would never solve Ireland's drug problem.
He said suppliers would always find ways to satisfy demand. The theme of this year's school is "Drugs and Alcohol in Irish Society - Use and Abuse".
"Law enforcement alone will never solve this problem. Therefore the ability of statutory and voluntary agencies to reduce the demand for drugs is one of the greatest challenges facing Irish society," he said.
It would take a combination of community, family and Garda involvement to turn the State's drug and alcohol problem around.
Mr Byrne said decriminalisation of cannabis would be a simplistic response to a complex problem. He warned that those who wanted unrestricted use of cannabis could use such a development as a "stalking horse". Mr Byrne said he remained unconvinced that a liberal policy was the way forward. "Should the drug-taking culture of the Far East, India and North Africa be imposed here?"
Mr Bryne said heroin had spread to many communities outside Dublin, sometimes to very isolated rural areas. "It would be complacent to think that there are any drug-free areas in this country," he said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Mr Eoin Ryan, said he had "serious misgivings" about allowing drinks industry sponsorship of sporting events to continue.
"It is clearly time for the drinks industry to get more responsible in its marketing campaigns. We cannot continue to ignore the implications of figures such as those from the Rutland Centre, which show a 50 per cent increase in alcohol addiction in the under-25s over the past 10 years," he said.
Irish parents had a "baffling old tolerance" towards the fact that their children drank alcohol, as long as they did not take illegal drugs. "The reality is that alcohol is the drug which is causing by far the greatest problems," he said.
Mr Ryan said drink-driving remained a "stubbornly fixed national pastime" in Ireland.
He referred to recent Garda statistics which showed drink-driving detections had almost doubled to 241 during the August bank holiday weekend, compared to the same period last year.
He said it was time to consider banning offenders from ever getting insurance again.
He acknowledged that lack of adequate treatment for teenage drug addicts was a problem but said a special protocol would be developed by the National Drug Strategy Team to allow under18s to be treated for serious problems.
Dr Patrick Troy, GP co-ordinator for the Midland and South Eastern Health Boards, outlined the logistical difficulties of treating heroin addicts in rural areas.
He said the treatment protocol and procedures were designed for urban addicts in Dublin. Many of his clients had to travel 25 miles or more to clinics and rehabilitation services. "Imagination is needed down the country," he said.
Dr Troy said a substantial proportion of his clients were women and many had become involved in prostitution as a result of drug-taking.
"Certainly 50 per cent of the women I treat would be involved in prostitution and some are under 18 years of age. They do it to finance their habit and their partner's habit."
He said it was essential that community pharmacies provided addicts with the medication they needed. "Pharmacies are linchpins in our service. Some do wonderful work, others come up with barely credible excuses not to serve addicts."
