Heroin user `will be dead at 20' if not stopped

The Eastern Health Board and the State have been given one week to put forward proposals to help a mildly mentally handicapped…

The Eastern Health Board and the State have been given one week to put forward proposals to help a mildly mentally handicapped "out-of-control" youth who is using heroin and has accepted he will be dead by the age of 20 unless he stops.

If the 15-year-old youth was addicted, he could be dealt with, counsel for the EHB told the High Court.

Mr Justice Kelly yesterday said he would sanction an interim week-long arrangement for the youth but stressed the situation could not continue as it is. He also imposed a curfew on the youth aimed at preventing him obtaining drugs at night after being told dealers in the vicinity of his home operate on a 24-hour basis.

Last week, the judge returned the youth, described as "very vulnerable" and "out of control", to the family home because there was no suitable secure unit available for him and said he would review the matter in a week's time.

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In court yesterday, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the EHB, presented the judge with a psychiatric report on the youth. Counsel said he was collected by EHB staff from his home in the mornings and returned there at 5 p.m. He spends five afternoons a week at a therapeutic facility. Mr MacEntee said difficulties arise later in the day after he is returned home.

He said the great difficulty was that the child-care system could not be used to solve all social ills. There was no instant solution for children of this sort. If the youth was addicted, he could be dealt with.

Mr MacEntee said the EHB was willing to allocate staff to stay in the youth's home until early in the morning.

Mr Gerry Durcan SC, for the youth, said his family were anxious to co-operate fully and had taken various initiatives themselves.

They would co-operate with the EHB and also with any curfew arrangement imposed by the court. But this was a short-term measure which could not continue into the future. Even if the youth's situation regarding drugs stabilised, a secure unit would still not be available. The parents were doing their best but the youth was out of control.

Mr Justice Kelly asked what the EHB was proposing to do.

Mr MacEntee said the board would give the youth as much support as it could in dealing with his drug problem. But there was no point saying it could do things that it could not. The board successfully dealt with a lot of children and had intervened in this case at a stage where there were possibilities.

Mr Durcan said the EHB and State must get together in the coming week and come up with a real suggestion. There was a window of opportunity at this stage but there was also the real possibility of drug addiction if nothing was done.

Giving his decision, the judge said this was another tragic case in which the court was confronted with the ever-present problem of trying to find some solution for a child experiencing the kind of difficulties outlined in the psychiatrist's report.

At present, the youth was supervised on a daily basis by the EHB but was going out at night and getting heroin.

The judge said the problem facing him was what to do now to secure the youth's welfare.

The youth needed appropriate therapy in a secure setting which prevented his getting drugs. There was no such facility available. Two units were full and would be reluctant to take in a person engaged in drug abuse. The judge said he could understand that.

All he could do was provide a very short-term and "stop-gap" measure of containing the situation. This could not continue beyond a week.

He made an order that the EHB's daily supervision and therapeutic programme for the youth continue and that, between 6 p.m. and 1 a.m., a board representative stay in his family home.

He also directed that the youth remain in the family home between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. If the youth did leave, a garda could arrest him without warrant and he would be detained until the following morning.

He would review the matter on Friday next when alternative proposals would have to be put regarding some form of facility to ensure the youth was in a position where he could not get drugs in the medium term.

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan is the Legal Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times