Madam, - Statistics have shown that alcohol and drug consumption among Irish youth rose steadily throughout the 1990s and that Ireland currently has one of the most alcohol- and drug-experienced youth populations in the EU.
In one day earlier this month, the Dublin county coroner dealt with five deaths linked to cocaine. It has been shown that the toxic effects of cocaine are heightened further when combined with alcohol. We have a major problem in Ireland with regard to drug and alcohol abuse and it is about time we faced up to it.
A recent report in the UK has shown that teenagers are in the grip of a sexual health crisis fuelled by a "celebrity culture" that condones alcohol abuse, drug addiction and promiscuity. A daily diet of celebrities in sexual poses taking drugs and getting drunk has led to increasing numbers of children "defining their lifestyle" around drugs, alcohol and sex in their early teens, with Britain now having the highest rate of teenage pregnancies and sexual infections in Europe, the report stated. We have the same problem here.
I would appeal to the Taoiseach and the Government to appoint one of the junior ministers to deal with this problem. We then would have a single government department with overall responsibility for the implementation of a national alcohol and drugs policy. We have had enough of reports and statistics; it is time for action. - Yours, etc,
PAT CAHILL, Past President, ASTI, Whitehall Road, Terenure, Dublin 12.