Shocking rise in numbers of young teenage addicts

'You will always have these type of problems around the town'. 

That was the stark assessment of Marie Byrne of the Navan-based Aisling Group which seeks to help those fighting drug addiction in response to the Meath Chronicle's footage of a derelict house that was used as a drugs den.
'There is a lot more drugs out there now, there is no denying that. It's at epidemic proportions and that's not helped by money being taken away from prevention so the problem just keep growing.
'It's a national problem. We've one of the highest rates in Europe for drug use and abuse and that's for all drugs, as well as having a recognised problem with alcohol.'
Worryingly, Marie says the heroin addicts of today are getting younger and younger.

 

'What we're seeing now is a much higher rate of teens presenting with addiction problems. It used to be that we'd see people showing with full addiction issues at around 18 years of age. Now we're seeing that at 13-14 years of age.
'So the reality is that most of these kids start using these drugs at a very young age and that's when we should have some help to intervene and we don't have that currently.
'There's no funding for teen services at all. You'd have to ask the Health Services where its services are for addiction. Parents don't know where to go. We do addiction counselling and family counselling but the bottom line is if you don't put the money into this area then people die.

'There will always be deaths from drug abuse but if you don't address actual prevention and the causes then you've no chance. It could all be changed overnight if they put the efforts they are putting into plans for injection rooms into the prevention side. All it needs is resources.
The Government plans to press ahead with plans for supervised drug injection centres insisting a 'health-led rather than criminal justice approach to drugs' was confirmed in the Programme for Government last April.


- The Aisling Group International Charity was founded in 1988, with its head office based in County Meath. It was established as a direct response to the need for information and help for the public, relating to the negative effects from drugs and alcohol misuse. If you would like further information please contact 046 9075979.