A renewed effort by the State to tackle the problem of early school-leaving could reduce the level of drug addiction among young people, a weekend conference in Dublin heard.
One Dublin group which helps people with drug problems said almost a third of the people on its books left school before the age of 15, and 45 per cent had never sat a public examination.
"It is very clear that the Department of Education is getting very, very poor marks in this area," said the Minister of State for Health, Mr Eoin Ryan.
He said the Department of Education was not responding like other State agencies to the problem on the ground.
"Obviously, there has been some breakdown in communication, and it needs to be much more involved than it has up to now."
Mr Ryan said in recent years the sheer scale of the drug problem in the worst-hit areas had led to a crisis of confidence in the State agencies.
Ms Susan Collins, of Addiction Response Crumlin, told delegates 29 per cent of the 400 people her group was involved with left school before the age of 15.
She said the Crumlin group dealt with one of the highest rates of early school-leaving in Dublin and "that is why policy from the bottom up needs to be influenced".
She added: "They're not advertising in papers that kids are dying any more. We want aftercare now for these kids. There's no point dishing out methadone."
Mr Davin Roche, of Bray Partnership, told participants the education system was "not just about helping middle-class teenagers get their Leaving Certificate" and stressed the need to address the problem of early school-leaving in disadvantaged areas.
He said most teachers would know that some teenagers were "having huge, huge difficulties with the system".
Organised by Combat Poverty Agency (CPA), the conference investigated the link between poverty, drug use and public policy.
It heard about the experiences of seven community and drug-awareness organisations from Dublin, Drogheda and Athlone which were funded by a CPA grant scheme aimed at enhancing the contribution of local groups.
Mr Brian Dillon of, NEXUS Research Co-operative, who presented a paper on the main findings of the CPA programme, pointed out that people involved with drug addicts were dealing with life-and-death situations every day of the week, making it difficult to develop "pro-active policy".
Mr Paddy Behan, who is on the SIPTU national executive and is a member of Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, said it was important that the local business community be involved in tackling the drugs issue.
He said that if substance abuse was prevented things would be better for chambers of commerce and insurance companies, which in turn could be a source of funds for drug support groups.