A CONSULTANT in emergency medicine in Cork has expressed concern at a surge in heroin abuse in the city and county.
Dr Chris Luke, a consultant at the Mercy University Hospital and Cork University Hospital, has warned that the level of abuse of heroin in Cork is as serious as anything he has ever seen at previous posts in Dublin, Liverpool and Edinburgh.
Dr Luke told a meeting of the Health Service Executive's regional forum earlier this week that he was personally treating more cases in Cork than he ever had before. He maintains that within the past fortnight he has treated 12 people for opiate abuse, such as heroin and methadone.
"Sadly in the last six months or so I have noticed what can only be described as a surge in heroin cases. I have treated heroin cases myself over the last six to 12 weeks.
"We had seven or eight cases in the Mercy last week where there was the sadly familiar ingredients of cocaine, heroin, methadone and Valium being consumed. Hitherto I had not been seeing those kind of cases more than once or twice a year."
Dr Luke claimed that any significant rise in heroin addiction in Cork would pose a huge burden on the health service in the city. He said hospital staff were feeling under unprecedented pressure in relation to the treatment of drug addiction.
Dr Luke added that more people were using heroin intravenously in Cork than ever before and that the upsurge in heroin abuse in the city and county was likely to have serious implications.
More than 120 kilos of heroin were recovered in Ireland in 2007 - roughly the same as 2006 - which is significantly up on previous years. The focus on heroin comes despite the recent media spotlight on the rising use of cocaine. Last October Cork's city coroner expressed serious concerns about a dramatic rise in the number of heroin-related deaths in the city.