FOLLOWING a meeting with community groups fighting drugs, the Taoiseach has said "we need to provide a way out of the drug "culture" for young people involved or at risk of becoming involved in drugs.
After discussions yesterday with the groups and the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, Mr Bruton said a way out must also be found for "the areas where hopelessness has been created by the lack of employment opportunities".
For many people, the only culture in the area is a drug related culture, he added.
"We need to create a better and more hopeful future for these parts of urban Ireland where drug abuse, unfortunately, is rampant," Mr Bruton said.
Describing his meeting with the community organisations as "exceptionally useful", he said the people concerned were realistic and constructive.
"I hope in government we will be able to help them," he added. The truth of the matter remained that there would be no drug barons if people were not to pay money to buy drugs.
Neither would there be contract killings, financed by drugs barons, if people were not paying the money "which is ultimately used for these awful purposes".
"We must suppress, by voluntary means and by support for alternative activities, the level of demand for drugs in our society.
"That is crucial because law enforcement on its own, while very "important, is not going to solve the problem," Mr Bruton said.
Meanwhile, Chief Supt Fachtna Murphy has been appointed head of the recently established Criminal Assets Bureau.
The bureau's legal officer is Mr Barry Galvin.
The two men met the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, and the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, at Government Buildings' yesterday.
The bureau will have the capacity to mount "a sustained and focused attack on the illegally acquired assets of criminals involved in serious crime", Mrs, Owen said.