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News items
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How To End Ireland’s Drug Deaths Epidemic
June 6, 2018
In 2001, Portugal decriminalised the possession of drugs for personal use. Since then, yearly overdose deaths have fallen from 300 to 23; problematic drug use has halved; and HIV infection rates have similarly plummeted. STUART CLARK travelled to Lisbon to see where it’s all gone right. Plus, we look forward to the first of the Hot Press, Ana Liffey Drug Project and LSE Drug Policy Town Hall meetings.
“We haven’t stopped the war on drugs, we’ve stopped the war on people.” Dr. Nuno Capaz is explaining the philosophy behind Portugal’s health-based ‘treat don’t punish’ drug laws, which have seen overdose deaths fall from 300 in 2001 to 23 last year. In that same period, the number of problem drug users has been halved from 100,000 to 50,000; intravenous drug use as a factor in new HIV cases has plummeted from 60% to 6%; and heroin use among the prison population is down from 14% to 3%.
With official government stats like that, it’s no wonder that Portugal has become such an important reference point for progressive drug policy.
“We’ve had delegations visiting us from all over the world including Ireland, Canada and Norway, where they’re introducing their own version of decriminalisation,” resumes Capaz, an amiable fortysomething whose hipsterish demeanour belies the fact that he’s Vice-President of the Lisbon Drug Addiction Dissuasion Commission. More commonly known as the CDT, it’s where 4,000 people caught with drugs for personal use were sent last year, instead of to court. Following an initial assessment in the organisation’s nondescript suburban offices, they were obliged to return, to meet a panel comprising of a lawyer, a psychologist and a social worker.
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Tony Duffin interview about a health-lead approach to the possession of drugs.
June 6, 2018
Tony Duffin, Ana Liffey CEO was interviewed by Shane Beatty for Kildare Today on Kildare FM about a health-led approach to the possession of drugs for personal use. Click the link & you can hear the interview at the 22 minutes in.
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Towards a health-lead approach to possession of drugs
June 5, 2018
Town Hall Dublin – 12 June 2018
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Renewed calls for drug testing at Irish festivals following UK deaths
June 5, 2018
The Ana Liffey Drug project are keen to provide the service, while the matter will be considered at the Sinn Féin Ard Dheis.
The Ana Liffey Drug Project has reiterated its willingness to provide professional drug testing at Irish music festivals following the death of two people, Georgia Jones, aged 18, and 20-year-old Tommy Cowan at the Mutiny weekender in Portsmouth. Three men have subsequently been arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs at the event, which was immediately cancelled as a safety precaution.
“The tragic deaths of young festival goers in the UK at the weekend is a wakeup call to us all,” says Ana Liffey CEO, Tony Duffin. “We know that it is safest not to use unknown or illicit drugs at all, but we also know that over the summer some festival goers will use drugs and drink to excess. These are not bad or stupid people, they are someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, aunt or uncle. We want everyone who goes to a festival this summer to come home safely.
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Crack-cocaine use surging in Dublin city centre
June 5, 2018
Dealers began offering smaller, cheaper bags of the drug from last summer.
The HSE is planning a harm reduction information campaign in response to a significant increase in use of crack-cocaine in Dublin city centre.
Drug service workers on both sides of the Liffey have noticed an increase in availability and use of the drug since last summer.
“Crack-cocaine isn’t new – it would come and go as a drug trend but this is more sustained use,” said Tony Duffin of the Ana Liffey Drug Project.
A smokeable form of cocaine made by chemically altering cocaine powder to form crystals or rocks, crack-cocaine produces a short but intense high with effects much stronger than the powdered version of the drug.
Duffin said the rise in availability of cocaine in the capital had led to an increase in the amount of crack being manufactured.
He explained:
There was something that happened around the summer of last year – a rock of crack would cost around €50. Dealers began to make smaller rocks for €25 so people could buy them for cheaper.