Text-messaging service reveals danger of drugs

A free text-messaging service to provide information on the danger of drugs was launched in Croke Park yesterday.

The service, 50100 Virtual Outreach, is aimed at young people and will send accurate information on named drugs within seconds.

The name of a specific drug can be sent by text to 50100 and the sender then receives a message explaining what the drug is and how it works on the body. The message also includes a web address and a contact phone number for further information.

The text-messaging service recognises the hundreds of code words and street names in use for each drug.

Launched by Dublin GAA football manager Paul Caffrey, the service will be available on a 24-hour basi. It was set up by Crosscare, the social care agency of the Dublin Catholic Archdiocese. It is sponsored by Vodafone and Puca Technologies, the company that developed the technology behind the service.

The project was developed following the success of an information website for young people about drugs and will be evaluated after six months. If successful, the service is likely to be extended throughout Europe in 2007.

Mr Caffrey, a local garda and father of three teenage boys, said he understood the challenge of bringing up children in today's environment and the scourge of the drug problem in the inner city.

"The service is a fantastic idea and well worthwhile," he said.

"It gives young people the opportunity to find out for themselves the effects of drugs, instead of finding out on the street."

Conor Hickey, director of Crosscare, said the service recognised that every night in clubs, bars and streets another teenager is being offered drugs for the first time.

"It is a support service in the pocket of that young person that may just save them from years of misery or worse," he said.

"Drug abuse has ruined so many lives and will continue to do so, unless we relentlessly pursue raising awareness using whatever media reaches out to young people."