The garda plans to recommend next month that up to 18 alleged heroin dealers arrested in Dublin should be sentenced to treatment rather than prison.
The alleged addict/dealers are among more than 100 arrested in the last two months for selling heroin to undercover gardai in areas of south and west Dublin.
"We are developing, in conjunction with other State agencies, a rehabilitation programme for some of these young people," Supt Eddie Rock, of the Garda National Drugs Unit, told a conference on money-laundering in Westport, Co Mayo, yesterday.
The dealers, most of whom allegedly sell heroin to feed their own habits, are due to be charged next month at a special sitting of Kilmainham District Court. If the court accepts the recommendation the project will involve the Probation and Welfare Service, the Eastern Health Board, FAS and a treatment centre in west Dublin.
The Department of Justice has said it intends to set up a pilot project in Dublin District Court next year for a formal drug court to deal with non-violent drug offenders. However no details of treatment centres or costs have been announced for the project.
The Dublin District Court system has been seen to operate increasingly as a de facto drug court, with the vast majority of offences relating to drugs, and judges combining whole or part suspension of sentences with a recommendation for treatment.
The drug courts system, which originated in the US, was strongly recommended in a report by an expert group chaired by Mrs Justice Denham to the Minister for Justice earlier this year.
However, the report pointed out that the legislation has existed for judges to sentence offenders to treatment since 1984. But judges were unable to impose such a sentence because the treatment resources were not available.
Under the system offenders must remain drug-free, have regular urine analysis and be monitored by the court. If they start using drugs while on the programme a prison sentence can be imposed.
In an overview of the Irish drugs problem Det Supt Rock said gardai were working more closely with communities in fighting the drug problem.
Undercover operations were "forming a very important part of our strategy at the moment", he said. But the problem was more than a policing one. "By policing it out of one area we push it into another." He told delegates that Ireland, and particularly the southwest coast, had been used as a gateway for cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines being imported into Europe. "Similarly heroin is coming in the opposite direction, through Liverpool into Dublin."
