Serious drug abuse has spread beyond Dublin, with cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis abuse in particular having doubled in some areas between 1997 and 1998. And no one is in any doubt that drug-users are getting younger, and using for longer.
Waiting lists for methadone maintenance remain, more than three years after a ministerial task force recommended a target "to eliminate all waiting lists [for methadone maintenance centres in Dublin] during 1997".
The Ministerial Task Force on Measures to Reduce the Demand for Drugs made its first report in October 1996. Mr Pat Rabbitte, the former minister of State who chaired it, says: "It's disappointing to see that gaps so clearly remain in the treatment infrastructure. It is shocking the number of users out there not getting treatment."
Yesterday the Minister of State Mr Eoin Ryan embarked on a series of regional meetings as part of the review of the National Drugs Strategy which the Government is undertaking. The first of these, at which individuals and groups can make submissions, took place in Cork yesterday afternoon. Others will follow in several cities over the next fortnight.
The Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation has received more than 100 written submissions and over 1,000 hits at the review website.
The review, put simply, will assess how effective the National Drugs Strategy team and the 13 local drugs task forces which grew out of the first Ministerial Task Force report have been in reducing the demand for drugs.
"It will also look at how government agencies have worked with the task forces," says Mr Ryan. "Though the task forces were originally established in just two cities, there is a realisation that this is a national strategy and that we need to look at the situation throughout the country."
Some 12 of the 13 local task forces were established in Dublin, the remaining one being in north Cork city. Staffed by people from the community as well as representatives of various State agencies, their role has been to identify what their communities need in terms of treatment and preventive measures, and to submit proposals on how these needs might best be met.
The National Drugs Strategy team includes senior civil servants and representatives of the Garda, the health boards, FAS and the voluntary sector.
No one The Irish Times has spoken to about the drugs strategy, whether involved in the task forces or not, doubts it has been "a good thing". Some, however, expressed reservations about the local task forces' ability to effect real change, about the level of co-operation from some State bodies and about the strategy's capacity to examine more radical treatments for addicts.
Although waiting lists for methadone maintenance programmes in Dublin remain, some of up to nine months, Mr Ryan says that the number of places for treatment has grown enormously since 1997.
In 1988 Dublin had one methadone clinic. That rose to five in 1995 and to 13 in 1996. Today the Eastern Regional Health Authority runs drug treatment centres in 52 locations. These target an estimated 13,000 heroin addicts in Dublin, although just 4,600 receive treatment.
On Cork city's north side, Mr Willie Collins, co-ordinator of the area's local drugs task force, says the problem drugs remain cannabis, ecstasy, solvents and alcohol. In 1997 the local task force was awarded £660,000 of the £14 million channelled into the drugs strategy. Most of this amount has gone into preventive initiatives. Mr Collins says he would like to see more attention given to prevention of alcohol abuse. "It is certainly a gateway drug in a lot of instances," he says.
Like others, he stresses the complex reasons behind any individual's drug addiction and the need for a multi-faceted approach to treatment and prevention. It is in this area that Ms Anna Quigley, co-ordinator of the Dublin Citywide Campaign Against Drugs, has most hopes for the current review.
"While the task forces have been invaluable in finally giving communities a real say in their area," she says, "mobilising them in a way that was unthinkable 10 years ago, when you look at the amount of money they actually have a say in, compared with the enormous budgets of Government Departments, there is a clear need to hone strategies, to refine lobbying and campaigning and to set the task forces in a context where we can say: `This is what the task forces can do, and this is what they can't, and should not be expected to do'."
Some Departments, notably Education, she says, have been reluctant to get involved with the task forces at a local level. This is also mentioned by Mr Jim Ryan, co-ordinator of the Dun Laoghaire task force.
He comments: "The Department of Education must realise these are areas which need special attention, and local schools must be enabled to react adequately to areas which have suffered appalling neglect over the years."
Mr Ryan says he will listen to anyone, and that the series of meetings has been arranged for this purpose.
The drugs problem can be turned around, he believes. "I really believe this is something that can be done, but we have stored up some dreadful problems in this country. It's embarrassing really. Sometimes you look at these areas [where the drugs problem is worst], so desperately deprived, and just think: `What are we doing here at all?'
"There is no magic wand and these things will take time, but I think that with a concerted effort and commitment, we can do it."