Doormen awarded drugs education certs

Eight nightclub doormen in Dublin have been awarded drugs education certificates by the Eastern Health Board.

The men completed a 10-week education programme on how to recognise drugs and cope with the side-effects of drug use in nightclubs.

"A number of people choose every weekend to use dance drugs," the EHB education officer, Mr Stephen Harding, said yesterday. "If we have information that could save lives, then it would be wrong not to teach it." Mr Harding said some nightclubs were reluctant to become involved. "They were afraid that their participation in the programme would mean they had a drug problem on their premises."

The managers and owners of 24 Dublin nightclubs attended a two-day training course earlier this year, Mr Harding said. Twenty bouncers signed up to take the course, the number dropped to 16 and eight bouncers from four clubs completed it. The certificates were presented to the bouncers in Dun Laoghaire on Monday night. "We're grateful to the four clubs," Mr Harding said. "We would see them as the responsible ones."

The board plans to run the education course on a city-wide basis from January. It is also looking at a credit-card size information card given to club-goers in Britain with a view to adopting a similar card in Ireland.

"We need to set up working groups of gardai, club owners, health boards and the health and safety authority," he said. "If club owners throw out a youngster who is under the influence of something and he subsequently suffers injury or death, they're leaving themselves open to legal action," he said.

A "chill-out" area where dancers could cool down in a nightclub could help prevent deaths by dehydration associated with ecstasy use. "But if the clubs do that they're seen as condoning drug use," Mr Harding said.