A THREE-year-old child from a Dublin housing estate blighted by heroin abuse has died after apparently ingesting physeptone, a heroin substitute.
Last week gardai started an investigation into the death of the child, who died last May. At first the death did not arouse suspicion, but toxicology reports prepared for a coroner's inquest found traces of the substance which is normally only administered as a heroin substitute to adults in methadone treatment programmes.
The child, who died in his sleep at his home, is understood to have been born to a heroin-abusing mother, and had previously been ill. He was also regarded as being at risk from sudden infant death syndrome.
Following the child's death, there was a delay of some months in the matter being referred to gardai, but it was eventually reported, and the death is now being investigated, it has been confirmed.
Gardai spoke to parents and relatives at the end of last year, and, after an initial report was compiled a decision was taken to begin a formal suspicious-death investigation. This was started last" week.
The boy was the only child of an unmarried couple who were both heroin addicts but who were receiving methadone treatment. They were legally entitled to have physeptone as part of the programme.
The child was found in his bed by his parents, and they reported that they had tried unsuccessfully to revive him. He was taken to Our Lady's Childrens' Hospital in Crumlin, where he was declared dead.
It is still not clear how the child came to have physeptone in his body. It is understood that the drug could induce a coma or death in an infant.
A local senior Garda officer said the investigation was still under way, and further questioning is to take place. There was no further comment.
The west Dublin estate where the couple live has been one of the worst centres of heroin abuse in the country. A number of heroin dealers have been operating from the small estate.
The problem on the estate has developed in only the past few years but reached a stage where the area had a higher level of addicts that any other.
Gardai have stepped up operations in the area and say the heroin problem in the estate is being brought under control with the assistance of local community groups. There is no militant anti-drugs movement in the area.
However, the estate still attracts addicts, and arrests are made nightly. In one night recently 30 people from areas as far away as Galway and Dundalk were arrested for heroin possession.
Like many of the surrounding public authority estates, the estate where the child died has very high levels of unemployment and is almost completely without amenities.
The area was a centre for gangs of teenage car thieves, some of whom moved into drug-dealing. Policing in the estate has been stepped up to the extent that at any given time an average of 10 gardai are on patrol there.