PRISONERS IN the Republic’s jails tested positive for illegal drugs on almost 9,000 occasions last year despite a clampdown on drugs in prisons and the introduction of random drug-testing, new figures reveal.
Detection rates for illegal drugs were more than 50 per cent in many jails. Heroin was found in samples provided by more than one in four inmates, more often than cocaine and even cannabis.
Tests for EDDP – a legal substance which proves the use of the heroin replacement drug methadone – returned almost 16,000 positive results in 27,000 tests. Detection rates for EDDP were highest in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, at 94 per cent of those tested. Positive results for the drug were more than 80 per cent in four other prisons. The EDDP and heroin test results suggest the prison population is heavily dependent on heroin.
The drug-testing regime was most relaxed in Portlaoise Prison, which houses dissident republicans and leading gangland figures. Just 18 tests were carried out at the jail last year, the lowest by a considerable margin of any prison. Eight prisoners tested positive for heroin, cocaine or cannabis.
The new data was obtained by the The Irish Timesunder the Freedom of Information Act.
The number of tests carried out has reduced since a more comprehensive system of random testing was introduced in late 2007 as part of efforts to introduce a so-called drug-free prisons regime.
Last year just over 27,000 tests were carried out compared with 33,000 in 2007, 25,000 in 2006 and 37,000 in 2005.
The new data shows that while the number of inmates testing positive, 33 per cent, for illegal drugs was marginally down on previous years, prisoner drug abuse remains at epidemic levels.
The most popular illegal drug was heroin with more than one in four – 7,309 of the 27,227 prisoners tested – returning positive results. Cannabis was next with 6,110 positives; a positive return rate of just under one in four.
Surprisingly few tests – just 675 of 27,227 – revealed prisoners using cocaine. Just 96 inmates tested positive for amphetamines.
Some 7,480 inmates of the 27,337 tested returned positive results for benzodiazepines, mostly tranquillisers. These drugs are legally dispensed to inmates but would also be available on the prison black market, which is fuelled by smuggled narcotics.
Some 253 inmates tested positive for alcohol.
Of the 27,227 inmates tested last year 15,740 tested positive for EDDP. It is dispensed to inmates by prison medical staff and is also available on the black market in jails.
Drug-test information dating back before 2008 was released to The Irish Times last year, the first occasion such information became public.
It showed that of the 33,362 tests carried out in 2007, 36 per cent were positive. In 2006, 25,276 tests were carried out with 37 per cent giving positive results. In 2005 some 37,288 tests were carried out, with 47 per cent testing positive.
Mountjoy Prison:3,279 tests were carried out last year with 52 per cent positive for heroin, 46 per cent for cannabis, just 1.4 per cent for cocaine and 94 per cent for EDDP (a substance which proves the use of methadone).
Mountjoy Women's Prison: 58 per cent tested positive for benzodiazepines, 28 per cent for heroin, and 83 per cent for EDDP.
Wheatfield Prison, Dublin: cannabis was the most popular illegal drug with a 40 per cent positive test return. Some 36 per cent were positive for heroin and 74 per cent for EDDP.
Arbour Hill, Dublin: In the prison that houses sex offenders, just 46 tests were carried out; six were positive for cannabis. No other drugs were found.
Cork Prison: 153 tests were carried out with just seven returning positive results, for heroin and cannabis.
Limerick Prison: There were 496 tests with 38 per cent positive for heroin, 31 per cent for cannabis and 86 per cent for EDDP.
Midlands Prison, Portlaoise: 3,453 tests carried out with 41 per cent positive for heroin, 89 per cent for EDDP and 23 per cent for cannabis.
St Patrick's Institution, Dublin: 2,457 tests were carried out at the young offenders' facility. The highest positive return rate for an illegal drug was for cannabis, at just 5 per cent. However, 300
tests were positive for EDDP, suggesting that despite their youth, many inmates were already in treatment for heroin use