THE use of ecstasy among drug abusers attending treatment centres in the Southern Health Board area has increased from 18 per cent to 30 per cent in the past three years, the board said yesterday.
Launching a new epidemiological survey to determine alcohol and drug abuse, Mr Pat Madden, programme manager of the board, said in Cork that while the increase was worrying, no accurate figures on drug use were available.a
The evidence from those attending treatment centres was that young people had easy access to drugs, often passing lines of dealers as they entered discos. Cannabis had been replaced by ecstasy as the most popular illegal substance, despite an intensive information campaign, and complacency continued, not only among the young but among their parents.
Mr Madden said that in 1990 drug treatment centres in the region reported no ecstasy cases, yet three years later, reported cases had reached 18 per cent. The figure had now risen to about 30 per cent.
He said an accurate picture of the numbers using the drug would not emerge until the findings of the survey were published at the end of this year. The information gleaned would be used to target areas of prevention and early intervention.
"The survey will be undertaken in the captive situations where there is access to individuals affected by alcohol and drug abuse, e.g. primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. Family doctors, public health medicine doctors, public health nurses, social workers, hospital services, youth organisations etc will also be used," said Mr Madden.
The board has established an alcohol and drug misuse freephone helpline, available daily from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. It has also established a co ordinating forum for alcohol and drugs abuse to bring together all the relevant agencies to fight drugs and alcohol addiction.
Mr Madden said two pilot schemes, where teachers would be trained in drug counselling, would be introduced in north Cork schools next September.