The number of detox beds for drug addicts needs to be doubled, rehabilitation experts insisted today.
According to the latest report for the National Drugs Strategy, there are only 23 places for users to safely detoxify and another 25 are urgently required.
But advisers insisted the Government should follow the British experience and provide four times as many beds.
Calling for an improved detox regime, the authors said it should be spread evenly around the country and run alongside improved rehab services combining care, help getting back to work, housing, childcare and education schemes.
Detox beds can be offered to users regardless of the problem drug, although of the 5,099 users in treatment in 2005, 64 per cent of those reported heroin as the main problem.
It is believed there are around 14,500 problem heroin users in Ireland, with 12,000 of them in Dublin.
Some 8,200 addicts are already on the methadone treatment programme, but fewer users are applying for the scheme each year.