THE need for more education and activities that direct young people away from drug use were on the agenda during Minister of State Catherine Byrne’s recent visit to Limerick.
Minister Byrne, who has special responsibility for the Drugs Strategy and Health Promotion, met with members of the Limerick City Drug Education and Prevention Strategy (LDEPS) group after she officially launched the Healthy Limerick project.
And, recalling her own days as a professional soccer player, she expressed a special interest in the group’s ‘Fitness Through Football’ programme.
“We were delighted to be able to welcome the Minister and show her our offices in the youth hub Northside Youthspace run by Limerick Youth Service (LYS). The projects has been running for over ten years now and has delivered high standard drug education and prevention to Limerick City,” said project manager of Limerick City Community Development Project, Juan Carlos Azzopardi.
The Minister met with young people and workers with LYS who spoke about the need for more drug education and activities that direct you away from drug use.
“As drug workers we were delighted to hear the Minister state her absolute belief in the need for outside facilitators to come into schools to deliver drug education with expertise, which we currently do on a targeted basis.” said drug worker with LDEPS, Daniel Butler,
“We also as a team spoke about the importance of the decriminalisation but were disheartened to hear its gone to another committee to produce another report with results not due until next year,” he added.
Limerick City DEPS continues to grow and have recently announced a new exciting partnership with Everton FC as part of their Fitness Through Football programme.
On hearing this the Minister spoke of her love of Leeds United and her days as a professional football player with some of the participants with LDEPS.
by Alan Jacques
