With both the availability and use of heroin increasing at an alarming rate in the county, Carol Byrne talked to those involved in tackling the growing problem from both a legal and healthcare perspective

“Heroin would not have been a problem in this area in the past. It has arrived here [the Ennis Garda district]. And it’s not just here, it’s all across the Clare division. There is no community at the moment that isn’t threatened by criminal drugs. It is serious,” Superintendent John Scanlan stresses.
According to the Ennis Garda District Superintendent heroin is a growing concern for the gardaí in Clare as availability of the drug increases locally and its abuse has led to four deaths in the district in 12 months.
Statistics recorded by the Ennis Garda District, which cover Ennis, Shannon, Sixmilebridge, Newmarket-on-Fergus and their environs, reveal an increase of 48% in drug-related crime within a calendar year and that two drug dealers a week are being arrested in this region.
The drugs unit in Ennis has identified an alarming number of people who are currently using heroin in the Ennis Garda District, a habit that on average is costing €350 a week to feed.
According to figures obtained by the drugs unit, a bag of heroin costs €25, with some people using up to four bags a day.
“Heroin is a bit like food and water, it’s a seven day requirement. You’re talking about your average habit costing maybe €50 a day, which works out at €350 a week, so a full time job wouldn’t support it. That’s where the dealing element comes out of it with heroin. We’re now beginning to see a critical group of people I’d say using it. Heroin isn’t a social event, it’s an ‘I have to have it’ event. That’s their first priority to get a fix to get them level,” Superintendent Scanlan explained.
While there also may be a perception that this class of drug is only being abused in the large urban centres, the superintendent states that this is not actually the case.
“It is not fair to say it’s confined to the urban centres. There is no community at the moment that isn’t threatened by criminal drugs. Here, ecstasy as a drug of choice is way down, while heroin is way up, hugely. Cocaine is a constant but then it has an attraction for a certain scene of people.
“If any professional person went into their social set of people they’d find it. It is expensive, but you’d equally have people who believe they can live in this world of cocaine use and abuse. And what you’ll find is that it develops into a habit where they’re using too much cocaine and then to counteract it they start taking heroin on the other end to bring them back down. If you become addicted to heroin or cocaine they’re both psycho-addictive drugs and they’re both of extreme concern,” he explained.
However, the superintendent warned that heroin users don’t just start out using heroin and drugs such as herbal cannabis and cannabis resin can increase the potential for a person to move up the drug chain.
“We would also say we are seeing significant amounts of cannabis herb and resin; herbal cannabis in particular. The potency of cannabis herb is huge compared to what was out there 20 years ago, it is very potent.
“First and foremost it has been proven that cannabis is doing significant health damage. It’s not as acutely apparent as the use of heroin but I have never yet met a heroin user who didn’t start there and I’m 27 years in the gardaí and I was in a drugs unit in Dublin 26 years ago. It’s still that way and that’s how it is. There is nobody but nobody who hasn’t experimented with these gateway approaches to drugs, a significant proportion of the people who have tried cannabis resin, herb or weed, end up abusing the more psycho-addictive drugs of cocaine and heroin,” he concluded.

Probation service dealing with growing number of heroin cases

The increase in availability and use of heroin is becoming more apparent in the court system with the Probation Service recording a rise in cases that directly or indirectly involve heroin use.
The Probation Service, which is part of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, assess and manage offenders in the community on behalf of the courts service and the prison service. It also works in prisons and detention centres across the country.
Eoin Ryan, Senior Probation Officer in Clare, told The Clare Champion that “more and more cases are coming before the courts either directly or indirectly related to heroin use”.
He acknowledged that heroin has not really been on the scene prior to the last three or four years in Clare and that in more recent times it is fair to say that the numbers of people with addictions have significantly increased within that period. 
“In terms of numbers of users, it’s impossible to gauge a figure. It is a small cohort of people who go from using drugs recreationally to using heroin on a daily basis but a few years ago there was no heroin outside of the larger urban areas and now it’s the case that we’ve seen a significant increase,” he said.
In quantifying this significant increase he accepted that the numbers now habitually using heroin in the area have seen a fivefold increase from single figures over the past four years.
“Heroin has spread in the past several years, it spread to the larger urban areas like Cork and Limerick first and in recent times has spread out from there. In terms of Limerick, my understanding is that there is a small cohort of habitual users in Limerick going back a number of years who would have travelled to Dublin to source their heroin but now it is more widespread.
“Availability is up and if someone wanted to get it here and now and they are using other stuff they would find heroin. We would come across people coming to court over a theft offence, which has been carried out to feed a habit.
“It is important to stress that nobody starts off on heroin. People usually start on alcohol or cannabis and this can lead onto ecstasy. Although that’s not to say that everybody who misuses other drugs abuses heroin,” Mr Ryan said.
In their role, the Probation Services engages with someone at a post-conviction stage, but can often be engaged prior to the sentencing of a person. Mr Ryan outlines what steps would be taken by the service if they establish that heroin is in the equation.
“If we identify heroin as an issue then we would try to research the seriousness of the issue. There is a big difference between someone who has been offered heroin and smoked it, to someone who is using it daily. We would refer them to drugs counsellors for them to make an assessment and identify what an appropriate treatment would be, whether that is residential treatment, counselling or treatment in the community. In terms of resources in Clare they are stretched,” Mr Ryan added. 
The Clare Champion has learned that while there are treatment centres and addiction counsellors within the county there is no detox facility in Clare.
The acute unit in Our Lady’s Day Hospital in Ennis does offer a detox programme but only to those who are admitted with other conditions and not those just suffering from a drug addiction. The closest programmes for those with a drug addiction in County Clare is Cuain Mhuire, Bruree, Limerick, or at the Mid-West Regional Hospital, Limerick.
Furthermore The Clare Champion understands that only one public addiction counsellor is operating in the North and West Clare area and one in the Shannon area.
Addressing the treatment of heroin addiction, Mr Ryan explains that in his experience heroin “is one of the more difficult drugs to address”.
“It is highly addictive and it is a chemical addiction as well as a psychological addiction. Detox is difficult and to get to the stage of detox is also difficult because there are very few options available in the area. Bruree has a unit where you can detox over a period of one week. In terms of treatment centres, if someone manages to detox then they can go to places like Bushy Park,” he explained.
But he acknowledged that a number of treatment facilities require those coming in to be completely drug free, therefore those on methadone programmes may not be eligible. 
“Methadone maintenance is controversial as methadone is basically used as a substitute. It’s a medical solution and has to be prescribed. Some treatment agencies would be of the view that methadone should be used in the short term, as in someone starts on one level and then drops over a number of weeks.
“In Dublin it appears people are put on long-term methadone maintenance. But this is controversial as methadone is an opiate and is as addictive as heroin. In terms of harm reduction though, if someone is stabilising on methadone it is better than chaotically using heroin. It can also be said that if someone is on long-term maintenance it doesn’t address the addiction; that person is just in a holding pattern. High doses of methadone can be equally dangerous, particularly if someone is on methadone and starts reusing then there is a huge danger of overdose,” Mr Ryan explained.
He added that in the interest of public safety the Probation Service encourages those suffering from such an affliction to address their addiction, and he says that if they are successful in addressing it they can change their patterns of behaviour.
“If they are stabilised they’re not going to go back to the same behaviours such as property crime, which was used to fund the habit. What I would also say is that Dublin has been living with heroin for 20 years and we have to look at the lessons learned in this regard as to how it was addressed in Dublin have to be holistic in terms of tackling the issue,” Mr Ryan concluded.

Users are getting ‘younger and younger’

Heroin users are “starting younger and younger” according to the gardaí in Ennis, who know of teenagers that are currently addicted to this drug.
The gardaí in Ennis have revealed that they would have concerns about teenagers abusing the drug.
“We would know a few teenagers that are hooked on heroin at the moment. We would ask people to have a look at their own doors and not to be foolish enough to think that it’s beyond my Johnny or my Mary to engage in drugs. Everyone’s Johnny and Mary are at risk. When young people themselves are starting out in life, depending on what happens to them in life, we would hope that they wouldn’t resort to drugs as a means of getting through the day. We’re asking people to be a bit more responsible and realise that when they look around that there are people dying as a consequence of using drugs,” said Superintendent Scanlan.
He explained that an issue that is presenting itself is that young people are experimenting with softer drugs, such as cannabis, and this then leads to an abuse of harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
“You’ll have a few people on the margins, kids who start experimenting with cannabis and suddenly they start to say that this myth about drugs being harmful is all rubbish. They start to think it does nothing to you and say I’m just buzzing, I’m feeling happy about myself and I’ll be grand. Then they say well if that was true about that, (cannabis), then maybe the next level up mightn’t be as much of a problem. Then some of these people are finding themselves out of their heads on heroin and cocaine and they suddenly are in a spiral to nowhere,” Superintendent Scanlan outlined.
He stressed that the long-term use of cannabis is also an issue locally.
“You have people who are using cannabis for years and there you have another dynamic creeping in – second generation drug use. You have parents still using it and their children are exposed to it in that context,” he added.
Speaking about trends among young people attending at Bushypark Treatment Centre, Frank Hunt, treatment team leader explained that he has “noticed heroin is steadily increasing over the last number of years” and he attributes this to an increase in availability.
“Heroin is much more widespread and cheaper than it was before. The two main things that cause problems are availability and access and, because it is so freely available now, more people are getting hooked,” Mr Hunt explained.
He highlighted that the vulnerable, particularly young people can be attracted into heroin use through aggressive selling.
“There is a tremendous fear about the use of heroin which results in people not being able to talk about it and to own up to it early enough and also families get very scared and worried and are afraid to look in the direction of heroin abuse. My own experience would be that families are scared to admit that heroin is being used, they are afraid to mention or question the use of it, in case it might be there. While young people are afraid to admit that had used it and this adds to the difficulty of getting help,” Mr Hunt concluded.