Grim description of addicts

A DAIL committee yesterday heard a grim description of young drug addicts "doing horrific things to themselves" in an area of Dublin where they had congregated.

They were injecting heroin "freely and openly" including one injecting himself in the groin, and rinsing their syringes in dirty canal water and it was all captured on an amateur video, the Dail Sub Committee on Drugs was told yesterday.

Mr Eamonn Walsh (Lab) said he had seen the video of drug addicts from his constituency in Tallaght who had travelled to an area under a bridge on the banks of the Grand Canal in Dolphin's Barn.

He described it as large scale drug taking which went on over a period of days. "They were injecting heroin, some using areas of the body which were highly infected and covered in sores. They were using water from the canal which is infested with rats to clean their syringes. There was no intervention from anybody," he said, including the Eastern Health Board or the Garda. The video also showed people dealing drugs on the street in Dolphin's Barn.

Mr Walsh said that a number of the addicts were accompanied by young children.

"I would suggest that we need a serious task force of an intervention kind that would be able to bring this horrific scene under control."

Mr Tom Mooney, Department of Health Assistant Secretary, who had outlined the policy of the Department of Health on drug misuse to the committee, said he was not aware of the incident about which Mr Walsh was speaking.

However, he said the 10 regional task forces set up in Dublin did have plans to "take action in that sort of situation".

Mr Mooney explained that the Department's policy, which was based on reducing the demand for drugs, had evolved over the years in response to changing patterns of drug misuse and to take into account new approaches and emerging strategies in prevention and treatment.

Mr Mooney told the committee that at no time in the recent past had lack of resources been a problem. However, it had been difficult to get the skilled personnel needed and to set up treatment clinics in some areas of Dublin.

The committee chairman, Mr John O'Donoghue (FF), said there was a "considerable body of evidence" to suggest the Department of Health had "fallen badly behind" the drug problem with people waiting for treatment, and a shortage of detoxification places.