THE NUMBER of heroin-related deaths in Cork city has fallen from 14 two years ago to none so far this year, and the usage of heroin in the city has stabilised, a meeting of Cork City Joint Policing Committee has been told.
Supt Tom Myers told the meeting that Garda figures for 2011 showed the amount of heroin seized in Cork this year had a street value of €32,000, which was just 25 per cent of what had been seized in 2010 when gardaí seized €128,000 worth of the drug.
He said there had been a clear fall in the number of heroin seizures in the city this year, and this reflected what gardaí believed was a general fall in drug usage due to tightening economic circumstances.
Supt Myers instanced the pattern in his own Mayfield Garda district where, to date for 2011, a total of 180 drug offences had been detected, with 142 of these being cases of possession for personal use and 38 being cases of possession for sale or supply.
Of these 180 cases, 130 were cannabis, 41 were heroin, two were ecstasy, four were cocaine and three were other drugs.
Of the 38 possession for supply cases, 27 related to cannabis, seven to heroin, two to ecstasy, one to cocaine and one to another drug.
Chief Supt Michael Finn of Cork city said while there had been an upsurge in heroin usage over the past few years, it had recently stabilised, and gardaí had set up a specialist heroin drugs unit which had been successful in combating the problem. Cork had also been fortunate in that, unlike Dublin, there were no gangs dealing in heroin and most heroin coming into the city was brought in in small amounts by people who were also abusing the drug and travelling to Dublin and Limerick for supplies.
Chief Supt Finn dismissed media reports that children as young as 14 were being offered heroin free in a housing estate in Mayfield, and said when he had approached teenagers in the area about the report last week they had scoffed at it.
Last week the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, which is aligned to the Real IRA, issued a statement in which it said people in a Mayfield housing estate appeared to be under siege from “criminal vermin who deal death to our children without conscience or consequence”.
Meanwhile there have been calls for Ennis Town Council to liaise with the Health Service Executive to establish a methadone clinic in Ennis. The move comes in response to a reported quadrupling of people requiring treatment for heroin addiction in the Co Clare town.