Up to 200 use heroin in Mullingar

The Midland Regional Drugs Task Force (MRDTF) has applied for a mobile needle exchange and is calling for the creation of rehabilitation clinics for the region in 2009.There could be between 150 and 200 people using heroin in Mullingar, Open Door Project"s Lead Addiction Counsellor told the Westmeath Examiner this week.'I suspect it is somewhere in the region of 150 heroin users in Mullingar, possibly 150 to 200,' said Mr Declan Hughes who works on a daily basis with addicts at the drop-in-centre.Mr Hughes said he did not want to be sensational about the issue and had made the estimate through his experience working with people suffering through substance abuse in Mullingar.He believes there has been a rise in the number of people using heroin in and around Mullingar in recent times.He also thinks there is a growing trade illegally sold prescription medicines and methadone in the area.The rise in heroin abuse is most likely related to an increased in availability coupled with the fact that more people are ending up 'in the poverty trap', he claimed.He believes that the majority of heroin users in Mullingar are smoking the drug, although some have progressed to intravenous drug use which brings a risk of blood borne viruses.Last month he referred a number of intravenous drug users to Merchants Quay in Dublin for treatment.According to the Counsellor and AIT lecturer, Mullingar has a 'culture of heroin abuse' which may not be evident to the average person on the street, 'It"s hidden, it"s a subculture', he explained.At present, people from Mullingar and Longford who are taking methadone while coming off heroin are being taken by taxi to attend a methadone clinic in Athlone.The MRDTF has submitted a request to the National Drugs Strategy Team to provide the 'harm reduction services' in the form of a mobile needle exchange to intravenous drug users in the area.A recent report from the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) revealed drugs users from Westmeath, Offaly, Longford and Laois are presenting at Dublin"s Merchant Quay Needle Exchange.On the subject of operating a needle exchange from local outreach centres, the report said it 'has been approved in principle as a pilot study to assess the potential to develop needle exchange in a family and community based context.'Westmeath County Council Chairman, Cllr Joe Whelan said there is a need for more addiction counsellors and rehabilitation centres as there are no rehabilitation centres in the Midlands at present.The historical focus in relation to the drugs issue has been in cities but the scourge of drugs is now prevalent right throughout the country, explained Cllr Whelan.He said the HSE and Midland Regional Drug Task Force are both seeking funding from the Government to provide rehabilitation clinics for the Midlands and reduce waiting lists for people seeking treatment.In relation to a needle exchange, he said the harm reduction measure has to be viewed as a fact of life.The NACD Needle Exchange Provision report said: 'A number of needle exchanges were established and are operated by the voluntary sector with HSE resource support. The largest of these services is provided by Merchants Quay Ireland, the busiest exchange nationally catering for an average of 150 to 170 clients per day. The county of origin of attending clients is recorded and individuals have presented to MQI needle exchange from Antrim, Armagh, Cork, Donegal, Dublin (City and County), Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Offaly, Wicklow, and Westmeath.'The absence of national, regional and local estimates of the number of injecting drug users poses challenges to planning service delivery for the group.However, using the National Drug Treatment Reporting System, and the Central Treatment List, gives a clear indication that there are networks of injecting drug users in all Regional Drug Task Force areas.The recent review of the current provision of needle exchange in Ireland clearly highlights the fact that despite the identification of service needs and the inclusion of specific actions in the National Drugs Strategy on development of services, provision is still largely concentrated in local drug task force areas with inadequate coverage at a national level despite the evidence of drug misuse throughout Ireland.Needle exchange programmes are currently provided in only four of the ten Regional Drug Task Force Areas and these are concentrated in the Local Drug Task Force areas around large cities and towns.Within the six Regional Drug Task Force areas with no needle exchange coverage, only three are in the process of developing such services (Western RDTF, North Eastern RDTF, and Midlands RDTF).It is important that sterile injecting equipment is available at the right place, at the right time. None of these areas provides 24-hour access to sterile injecting equipment, and none provides weekend coverage, the report disclosed.