The number of teenage drug abusers receiving treatment in greater Dublin has more than tripled since the start of the decade, a report by the Health Research Board shows.
The percentage of drug abusers treated for heroin addiction in Dublin has doubled since 1990, and the trend towards smoking rather than injecting drugs has increased. The greater Dublin area covers the city and suburbs and Dun Laoghaire county borough and suburbs.
The study, Treated Drug Misuse in Ireland National Report 1996, found that one in four intravenous drug users said they had shared equipment in the previous month.
The authors say it is difficult to establish the validity of this figure as definitions of sharing differ. Staff at the 46 treatment centres surveyed helped clients complete the questionnaires and this provided "added assurance", they say.
The report shows that a quarter of people treated nationally for cannabis misuse and one in 10 of those treated for ecstasy misuse were still at school.
The total number of drug abusers treated in 1996 throughout the State was 4,865, 2,041 of whom received treatment for the first time that year.
More than eight in 10 of these (3,994) lived in the Eastern Health Board area, while nearly a quarter came from Dublin's inner city. Almost a quarter were using drugs for more than five years.
Three-quarters (76 per cent) of school-going drug misusers attending treatment in 1996 lived in the EHB area, which includes counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.
Nine out of 10 users were under 15 years of age when they first used drugs. Forty-two per cent of these said they were under 14 years, while 49 per cent said they were 15 to 19 years.
"This suggests that the key groups to target for health promotion and prevention activities are those in their teens and younger children," the report says.
The report provides information regarding treated drug misuse only and acknowledges that the extent of untreated misuse is unknown. Information supplied to the HRB - the State body for promoting health research - came from 46 drug treatment centres in eight health board areas.
Drug misuse in prisons or treated by general practitioners is not included in the report. If such data were included, the figures of treated drug misuse would "increase considerably and give a more accurate picture", the authors say.
The study shows that the average age of drug abusers treated in greater Dublin fell from 24 to 20 years old between 1990 and 1996. In 1990, 39 per cent of drug abusers were treated for heroin addiction. This figure rose to 80 per cent in 1996.
Two-thirds of all those treated in greater Dublin in 1996 were under 25 years, compared to less than a half in 1990.
The number of teenage drug misusers treated in greater Dublin between 1990 and 1996 more than tripled, from 336 to 1,170. The percentage of teenagers among all drug abusers treated almost doubled from 17 per cent in 1990 to 29 per cent in 1996.
The 1996 figure of 29 per cent is a drop of two percentage points on 1995, but the numbers of treated teenagers rose from 1,095 in 1995 to 1,170 in 1996.
The amount of injecting drug abusers in greater Dublin decreased from 68 per cent in 1990 to 49 per cent in 1996, while those smoking increased from 14 per cent to 42 per cent in the same period.