Addiction centres designed to deal with all forms of drug abuse should be set up to fight the rise in cocaine-related problems, an Oireacthas committee said today.
With most clinics and treatment centres originally created to work with heroin users the cross-party group warned many addicts were not getting the support - medical or psychological - that they needed.
The report of the Oireachtas Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Committee recommended treatment centres that can help people abusing all forms of drugs.
Cecilia Keaveney TD, committee chairwoman, noted 10 per cent of cocaine related deaths were suicide and called for action to take the place of all the planning that had been mooted by Government.
"Drug addiction services need to be there for all drug addicts," she said.
Dr Siobhan Barry, clinical director Cluain Mhuire, Blackrock, warned many drug treatment clinics had focussed on heroin related problems since the late 1980s and that they were not equipped to tackle cocaine abuse.
"The reality on the ground is that drug treatment services were largely set up to deal with opiate problems but in that time it has changed," Dr Barry said.
She warned that cocaine related problems were on the up in Ireland with people presenting to clinics with multiple drug problems and the services were often not able to cope.
"It seemed in some ways that services were provided based on what they had available to them, not what the best practice might be," she said.
The report noted gardai have seized €500 million worth of cocaine in the last decade - and warned that ten times that figure could have slipped on to the streets.
The committee suggested the increase in cocaine consumption has been driven by an increase in production of the drug in Colombia and a consequent fall in the street price.
It also highlighted that cocaine was so addictive that animals, in experiments, preferred to starve to death rather than give up their addiction to the drug.
Ms Keaveney stressed the need for more focus on medical services as at present there was no treatment. However, scientists in the United States are working on a vaccine which stops addicts experiencing a high when they take cocaine.
PA