We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
NEW RESEARCH into drug use in Ireland has found that the number of cases entering treatment each year for problem drug use increased by 52 per cent from 2005 to 2010.
The number of cases rose up from 5,176 to 7,878 across the six-year period.
A new report by the Health Research Board (HRB) Trends in treated problem drug use in Ireland 2005 to 2010 also found that while heroin and opiates were the most common problem drugs over each year studied, the number of cases reporting cannabis as their main problem substance increased “significantly” over the period (from 1,039 in 2005 to 1,893 in 2010).
The number of cases which reported cocaine as their main problem substance peaked in 2007 and decreased slightly in the following years, while head shop substances were reported as a main problem for the first time in 2009. This increased from 17 cases in 2009 to 213 cases in 2010, when it exceeded the numbers reporting amphetamines, ecstasy and volatile inhalants, according to the HRB report.
Meanwhile, the number of cases – both previously treated and new cases – injecting drugs decreased over the period.
Half of all new cases entering treatment over the years of the study had begun using drugs at or before 15 years of age.
The report found that the majority (68 per cent) of cases presenting for treatment over this period reported problem use of more than one substance. The drugs most often reported as additional substances were identified as cannabis, alcohol, cocaine and benzodiazepines.
The overall increase in numbers seeking drug treatment is a indication of the challenge facing those services, according to the HRB report:
The significant increase in the total number of people requiring drug treatment services is a strong indication that problem drug use remains a pressing issue throughout the country, and presents complex and multiple challenges to those providing treatment.
The report recommended further prevention measures and initiatives particularly aimed at young teenagers in an effort to delay their initiation into drug use.
It also said that an increase in harm reduction services was likely to have influenced the drop in cases injecting drugs.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
People are unnecessarily mixing tobacco into their cannabis. a regulated market would provide the resources for users to consume responsibly eg with vaporizers a device that takes the smoking out of inhaling freeing the fragile lung tissue of carbon damage and also allowing the user to consume less as vaporizers are the most deficient way to consume. It is no wonder that uneducated users run into problems, just look at the manky joint in the photo! Regulate, educate.
So it’s the tobacco is addictive and not the cannabis. If that’s the case why aren’t there rehab clinics for tobacco addicts? Just wondering.
There are, just under different names. Ever witnessed a gang of rabid ex-smokers? What about the nicotine gum, acupuncture and hypnosis industries? It’s a big earner..
Not forgetting the cancer and other lung and death services. Amount of deaths from cannabis? Zero.
Cannabis isn’t addictive and has in FACT never killed a single person. Tobacco and alcohol are both highly addictive and linked to countless deaths. Also alcohol is a depressant. I enjoy a drink but am well aware of the effects.
Heroine,cocaine,meth and others like these are the main culprits here.
Cannabis is not addictive.
Its Mentally additive …
Not physically, but most smokers build up a dependence, be it physiological or otherwise. a cannabis smoker without any cannabis will become edgy..
Not really, there are no physical side-effects of cannabis withdrawal. But some smokers can tend to consume compulsively for a period of time – just the same way that the internet, golf, work, sex, relationships, etc., etc.. can take on a compulsive character for certain people.
i would agree with Niall here having been a regular user for some time who lost interest. The biggest problems i saw were that the compulsive consumption Niall spoke about was exacerbated by tobacco use. Joke about this all you want but believe me this is quite serious. i know many people who don’t smoke cigarettes but mix it with weed and have built a dependency this way but who have fooled themselves thinking they do not need nicotine. In comparison with other friends of mine who do not mix with tobacco, i would hazard an educated guess to assume the tobacco is a significant factor in their habitual cannabis consumption. In a prohibited culture experience is the only method of education and we’re leaving generations of people to figure everything out alone.
Sean, I whole heartedly agree with you! I started smoking weed at 11 (just the groups I was hanging out with I guess) I loved it from the word go, the thing is though,as it was always mixed with tobacco I always assumed that I was craving a joint. When I started hanging out in pubs I took up smoking cigarettes and then a few years ago I quit them. Since I removed tobacco from my smokes I have to say, I never crave now. Smoking weed is just a way to unwind once in a while….. Bloody great money saver too!!! ;) tobacco is just nasty to me now
I know a few people with the same story Emma but unfortunately most of my friends still mix the wacky with the baccy. Might be worth noting that when I first gave unaccountable up my cannabis consumption fell by 50% instantly. I was getting more stoned as regularly. I bought a pipe, which is a much more efficiency way to consume as compared to a joint virtually no weed at all is wasted. You can measure exactly how much you want to smoke, there is none wasted billowing out the end, and you get a 100% hit opposed to some 50/50 mix suggesting you get stoned faster and consume less. But many of my friends are too addicted to tobacco to be interested in these economics. Tobacco prevention is needed much younger, I believe it will gravely reduce the amount of weed smoked over the years. Isn’t that our goal? These negative votes and comments above offer nothing but outlandish jabs- bit of constructive criticism anyone?
sorry one or two typos there from my smartphone
@Sean I suppose some responsible dealers will even supply a couch for which to sit your arse on. I’ve heard it all now.
yes and two sugars please.
Sean, had you just been at your ‘vapouriser’ when you wrote that?
Actually no haven’t touched it in months. Used to smoke it loads but after stopping mixing it with tobacco over two years ago i steadily lost interest. By the way, Spain is to regulate cannabis use next year. http://pr.cannazine.co.uk/201112131543/green/eco-news/cannabis-legal-and-regulated-in-spain.html
Martin Jordan , your a very foolish man if you think people who sit in there arses all day are the only people smoking cannabis. At least there are more people attending rehab. Try see the positive side
I’m intrigued… What is the positive side of more people needing rehab?
btw, those treatment centers are not always for addiction. Psychosis would be the illness that cannabis users encounter more frequently than addiction.
“The overall increase in numbers seeking drug treatment is a indication of the challenge facing those services, according to the HRB report”
No its not, its an indication of the problem facing people who try to be productive members of society. Its an indication of more drug-theft related offenses, more assaults on the streets, more shooting as gangs act with complete impunity. Its an indication of more overcrowding of prisons which we, the law abiding taxpayer have to pay for, all when innocent people, those who choose not to engage in drug use, die in hospitals from lack of funding.
We in Ireland call those who voluntarily engage in hard core drug use and ‘become’ addicted ‘victims’. They are not victims, they made a choice, a choice which is known by every human being to result in the addiction and physical and social effects which inevitably result. If I make a voluntary choice with a known 100% result which will effect society and individuals negatively would you call me a victim. If I voluntarily stole a car, drove it through a childs playground during break at 100kph, resulting in the deaths of children, would you call me a victim. No, you wouldn’t. I’d be called a murderer.
Anyone who wants to play the PC card and thumb down, well, you didn’t grow up where i did, go to school where i did, see what I see everyday today on the streets of Dublin and in more close quarters activity with these people. In Ireland today clinics and care for drug use have become viewed as an entitlement by many. In Dublin its usually by the same people who see SW as an entitlement and have no intention to work, ever. Clinics are not only considered just another source of drugs but are constantly used as a marketplace for the sale of other drugs. Its reality.
If I have to make a choice between my taxes cleansing junkies (which the majority of these services do not in reality succeed in) who voluntarily got to where they are knowingly/recklessly of their own accord or a child in Crumlins Childrens hospital desperate for needed treatment there is no question.
That’s absolute juris-nonsense, and don’t dare trying to play that, “you haven’t seen what I’ve seen” card – the town I grew up in was flooded with drugs by the time I hit my teens, has more heroin addicts per capita than anywhere else in the country, and I currently live in north inner city Dublin.
The reasons for addiction are complex – has it occurred to you that hundreds of thousands of people have made the “choice” to use various drugs in this country, yet only a small proportion become addicted? That some people can use drugs every weekend, and even during the week, but still be productive members of society? Ever wonder why that might be?
Addiction is a serious affliction, it’s compulsive behaviour, not voluntary. I am absolutely certain that very few, if any, people consciously decide to become addicted. And the there’s strong pharmacological and sociological research to show that addiction isn’t so much about the drugs, as about the addict.
The situation with the health service is deplorable, but that’s another issue entirely.
Btw, calling out this blatant nonsense has nothing to do with the “PC card”, and everything to do with assessing the issue based on rationality and experience rather than dumb prejudice.
I like that you felt the need to get in your retaliation first though, you must have had some idea what a stupid comment that was.
Look they may not be innocent victims but they are victims nonetheless, perhaps victims of their own bad choices, circumstances, weak willed, anti-societal inclinations, addiction…whatever.
Yes, driving through a school ground is crazy and rightly or wrongly, you would be labeled a murderer but there are mitigating circumstances that the judiciary would explore in the course of a hearing or investigation. Perhaps, the person is insane?
I have grown up in areas where drug dealing, deaths, crime, robberies were common place. I saw every facet to the problem from almost every angle possible and it’s a terrible curse on society. It affects the children of addicts, the parents, the neighbours even stingers, everyone. Yes, there is a fundamental choice that is made for most people to try drugs (I’ve seen instances where it wasn’t and it was forced upon them too btw) but isn’t it better for society to try to help these people get clean and the help they deserve once they make the choice to take it? Shouldn’t we as ‘normal’ or at least functioning elements of society do that for our own sakes as much as for theirs?
Ok, there are people that’s love to line every drug dealer and drug addict up against a wall, shoot them in the back of the head and send a bill for the bullet and cremation to their families, harvesting whatever organs were useful (if any) and move on. Is this where we’d stop? Would we target corrupt politicians and bankers with equal zest? What about antisocial bowsies on a tear after a nightclub? Do we lash them on a Sunday afternoon after mass…oh what about the pedo priests???
That last paragraph was slightly tongue in cheek btw. I guess my point is, that to save out own souls and uphold out own moral and ethical stature in society, shouldn’t we do what needs to be done for the betterment of others and also for ourselves too? Helping an addict is only one aspect to this. Of course, fighting the epidemic at the root is through education, teaching people the dangers of drugs through hard lessons, show them examples, make stronger people out of them and instill the morals of society that is beneficial to everyone, isn’t tolerance one of these things?
As for the healthcare, perhaps charging someone more for healthcare if they’re doing drugs, going out drinking and getting destroyed by punching windows etc is the way? Save our money for the ones that didn’t ‘choose’ this lifestyle? Do we then charge the overweight too for not taking advice and exercising vigorously enough? What about the anorexic and bulimic too? They should eat, right? I do not think this is as simple as all that.
It’s never easy to come up with a solution to these problems, debate is required and a willingness to engage by the public and establishment, so that we can come to a conclusion but surely we, the so called ‘productive’ element should come out with compassion and dignity. Just a thought…
Another thing, I was at a funeral at the weekend, of someone who was very definitely a victim of addiction. That comment is grossly insensitive, ill-judged, offensive and downright stupid – particularly resent the implication that anyone who disagrees with you is some kind of “coddled PC idiot”.
Here here Niall :) thumbs up to you
Point taken martin. P wurple if you looked my comment I said its positive that more people are using it not needing it. Big difference
Apologies that last comment was for chuck.
@Sean i was commenting on the humorous side of his remark that we need education.
what’s wrong with education? many of the problems in the drug culture are due to a lack of education. For example in the cannabis scene users unnecessarily mix with tobacco and many of these are ignorant of the serious contamination taking place. Herb is being sprayed with glass, chemicals and more. Similarly chemicals are unfavourably balanced towards higher THC levels which bring in higher profits and unfortunately more mental illnesses- a regulated market would provide a higher CBD to THC ratio – cbd being the chemical with anti psychotic properties that counteracts thc and virtually unheard of in Ireland.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say