Treatment centres first port of call
FAMILIES and friends of Limerick drug addicts are more reluctant to bail them out by meeting dealers demands – with the result that treatment centres are first port of call.
However, court statistics reveal that intimidation and threats of force by dealers continue.
The Bushy Park treatment centre in Ennis deals with a large volume of referrals from Limerick, and centre manager, Margaret Nash, told the Limerick Post that since the start of the recession, families are contacting them much sooner when there is a problem.
“Families are not bailing people out by paying off their drug dealers anymore. They can’t afford it,” Ms Nash said.
In the boom years, many would try to protect their loved ones from the threats of dealers or the prospect of prison by handing over cash and even going to the extreme of remortaging their home.
“But now people are either saying to themselves and the person abusing substances that they can’t afford to do it or, in many cases, where it would have previously been easy to raise money through a loan that’s not possible now,” Ms Nash said.
Rory Keane of the Limerick based Regional Drug and Alcohol Co-ordination Unit, said that he can also see how, since the recession began, “it’s harder to put off the inevitable collapse around mounting debts because of drug abuse”.
Mr Keane added that the other impact which has been observed is that the “market for illegal drugs has contracted. This may be due to the recreational, weekend drug users cutting back”.
The type of drugs being used by clients of the unit has also changed, with a drop-off in numbers using heroin from November of last year until August of this year.
“Users are reporting that heroin was harder to get during that period but it seems to be becoming more freely available again,” he told the Limerick Post.
From just a handful of users a decade ago, there are now 96 people attending clinics for heroin abuse in Limerick with a further 101 clients attending their GP’s.
But by far the largest problem, according to both centres, is the abuse of alcohol, with the abuse of benzodiazepin (antidepressants) also widespread.
