Less than half of young homeless people use emergency accommodation services provided by the State, a new report shows. It recommends setting up residential care centres for young drug abusers as part of radical changes in services for homeless young people. The report of the Forum on Youth Homelessness, published yesterday, aims to improve and develop services for young homeless people in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area. It wants one authority to have statutory responsibility for the delivery of services to young people. [continues 534 words]
THE head of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland has welcomed clinical trials on the effectiveness of cannabis in the treatment of MS. Michael Dineen, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland, welcomed the trials, which are scheduled to begin in Britain this summer. However, he said they could not recommend that MS sufferers use cannabis. Not only was it an illegal drug, there was no clinical evidence to back up the claims that it can have medical benefits, he said. [continues 554 words]
THREE out of five people attending drug addiction treatment centres run by the Eastern Health Board are now in full employment. But the job success rate of those attending larger treatment centres run by the board in disadvantaged areas is lower because the problems associated with drug abuse are more complex. Heroin is the principal drug used by people over the age of 25 in Ireland and it is currently estimated that there are 13,000 heroin users in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare alone. [continues 228 words]
An Oireachtas committee is to tell the Government next month whether it should follow the lead of the US administration and take on the tobacco industry in Ireland. This week the US Attorney General Janet Reno announced that the US Government had filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington DC against the major cigarette companies. In the US the tobacco industry has already agreed to pay over $250 billion to the 50 states. The Joint Committee on Health and Children, chaired by Fianna Fail TD, Batt O’Keeffe, has been examining the Irish tobacco industry over the past two years. Their report is expected to be ready at the end of next month. Over 6,000 people die in Ireland every year from smoking related illnesses while over 15,000 people are undergoing medical care each year. [continues 195 words]
DEREK EGAN left his home in Dublin when he was 12 because he could not get on with his stepfather. He is now 17 and a drug addict. He says he still keeps in daily touch with his mother. He should be completing a detoxification programme at St Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin but never returned to the hospital after getting a temporary release earlier this year. He admits he has not given up his heroin habit and is nursing an abscess on his left hand caused by his drug habit. A relatively clean bandage covers it. [continues 437 words]
THE Minister charged with co ordinating the Government’s response to the drugs problem revealed yesterday that his own children had been offered drugs. “I know because they told me,” said Chris Flood, the Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, who has four children, aged between 16 and 23. “Of course they have been offered drugs when they were out socialising. I have often talked to them about the problem.” Earlier, Mr Flood had addressed the Joint Committee on European Affairs on the progress made by the Government in tackling the drug problem since coming into office. [continues 236 words]
ANTI-SMOKING campaigns by the Department of Health were and would continue to be formulated without interference from the tobacco industry, the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children was told yesterday. Chris Fitzgerald, principal officer of the Health Department, rejected claims made at a previous meeting of the committee by Dr Fenton Howell, president-elect of the Irish Medical Organisation, that the tobacco industry influenced policy formulation within the department. "Based on my 10 years experience in dealing with tobacco-related issues in this department I am prepared to state categorically that this was not the case," said Mr Fitzgerald. [continues 306 words]
ONE in three school-going children admitted using drugs in an ISPCC survey published yesterday. The society's chief executive, Cian O'Tighearnaigh described the level of drug abuse among the children as alarming. The survey was based on a questionnaire completed by 590 children between the ages of 11 and 18 years in a cross-section of schools in the Drogheda area. Mr O'Tighearnaigh said the proportion of children who admitted taking drugs, at 29%, was about 50% greater than similar surveys carried out in other areas of the country. [continues 286 words]
ONE of the leading companies in the tobacco industry yesterday refused to admit that smoking caused cancer when it appeared before Joint Committee on Health and Children. Mr Ian Birks, head of corporate affairs of Gallaher Group (UK), told the committee that smoking was a habit which people could take up or give up. It was not an addiction, he insisted. Quizzed on the health issue, Mr Birks said warnings carried on cigarette packs outlined the health risks. Mr Birks, who admitted that he smoked cigars but not cigarettes, did not accept that smoking caused health problems, such as lung cancer, bronchitis and heart disease. [continues 456 words]
IRELAND'S drinks industry has launched a code of practice for alcoholic beverages, aimed particularly at the alcopop sector. The code, which covers the marketing, promotion and sale of alcoholic drinks, will be voluntarily implemented by producers, importers, wholesalers and retailers who form the Drinks Industry Group, and reinforced by an independent arbitration panel. "If a product is deemed to contravene the code, then that product will simply not be handled by the market," said Michael Murphy of the Drinks Industry Group. In response to public concerns over the targeting of the under18 age group, he said specific emphasis had been placed on products of the "singleserve" variety, consisting of "spirit premixes, fruitbased and flavoured products, coolers, ciders, and beers". The code sets out a number of provisions concerning the labelling, packaging, merchandising, and promotion of products. [continues 117 words]
