Cork Heroin Use Reaching 'Epidemic Proportions'

A Fine Gael Senator has questioned the resources available to deal with what he claims is an escalating heroin problem in Cork, which he said is reaching epidemic proportions.

Speaking yesterday evening in the upper house of the Oireachtas, Fine Gael Cork Senator Jerry Buttimer said Heroin abuse in Cork City had become a major issue over the last number of years.

Mr Buttimer said it had reached the stage in Cork where heroin is easily obtainable and readily available to buy on the streets in broad daylight.

The Senator said: "Only last April we learned, through an inquest, of a man who died after taking heroin he bought in a Cork City shopping centre in mid afternoon.

"If this crisis is to be addressed there is a need for greater resourcing of treatment places. I recently met with a family who lost their son to this horrendous addiction and who were extremely critical of the help available to those in need."

Mr Buttimer said that the to gain entry to Cork's Arbour House drug treatment facility the addict must be clean for at least six weeks, which he believes is unacceptable.

The senator added it was expected that at least 12 people will die from Heroin overdoses in Cork alone this year.

Last Friday, anti-drugs campaigner Councillor Jonathan O'Brien said there are signs the city is facing a heroin crisis similar to that which ravaged Dublin in the 1980s.

At least three men were believed to have died of suspected heroin overdoses in the Farranree and Knocknaheeny areas of Cork in recent weeks.

"People may not be dying in the streets, but they are dying in people's homes, in their front rooms, and in the bedrooms," said Mr O’Brien.

(DW/BMcc)