Almost one in five young Irish adults has taken an illegal drug with cocaine becoming widely used, the first all-Ireland drug prevalence survey has revealed.
In north Dublin city and county, prevalence rates are as high as 41 per cent.
The south Dublin and Wicklow region, covered by the East Coast Area Health Board, has the highest reported level of cocaine use in the Republic. Some 6.3 per cent of all adults in the region have tried cocaine. Among 15- to 34-year-olds in the area that figure is 10.5 per cent. This exceeds the highest ever national EU rate for cocaine prevalence, 8.7 per cent recorded in the UK in 2002.
The new research, published yesterday by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) and the Drug and Alcohol Information and Research Unit (DAIRU) in Northern Ireland, also shows every region in the Republic is affected by almost all types of illegal drug, including crack cocaine and heroin.
Despite the findings of the report, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, insisted the Government was not losing the war on drugs.
He said, however, the threat to society posed by the drugs trade was as serious as that posed by terrorism.
While cannabis is the most widely used illegal substance among Irish people, cocaine is rapidly growing in popularity. Some 4.8 per cent of young adults, aged between 15 and 34, have used the drug at some point in their lives, more than in any other State in the EU - apart from the UK and Spain.
Cannabis has been used at least once by 17.6 per cent of people in the Republic. Next most popular was magic mushrooms, which have been used by 4 per cent of people. Ecstasy is third, at 3.8 per cent, followed by cocaine, at 3.1 per cent.
Overall rates for illegal drug use are similar in both parts of the island: 19 per cent, 5.6 per cent and 3 per cent for ever, recent and current in the Republic and 20.4 per cent, 6.2 per cent and 3.3 per cent in the North. In each jurisdiction, rates are higher in health boards with large cities. But alcohol use is considerably higher in the Republic. Tranquilliser and sedative use rates in the North are about twice those in the Republic.
Current tobacco prevalence rates ranged from 29 per cent to 41 per cent across the Republic and the North. Rates of lifetime and current use were generally higher among males than females though this was reversed in some areas. Younger adults reported higher rates of current use.
Mr McDowell yesterday told a seminar organised by the Blanchardstown Drugs Task Force that the courts must adapt a tough approach to criminals convicted of drugs or firearms offences, the two of which were inextricably linked.
"A person who is trading in drugs, be it cocaine or heroin or whatever, is just as much a threat as a paramilitary boss. A person who hands out and distributes drugs of that kind in a community is just as much a threat as a person who hands out firearms or knives. We have to readjust our moral compass in our community to adjust our fight against drugs, and the violence which goes hand in hand with it, so as to put the drugs trade on the same level as murder.
"Our judiciary must understand when the Oireachtas put in place guidelines for the sentencing of people convicted for the commercial distribution of drugs that the parliament was serious and required deterrent sentences in that area, and did not expect that the system of penalties provided was to be regarded as the exception rather than the rule."
He was referring to the interpretation by the courts of legislation which stipulates anyone convicted of dealing €12,700 or more worth of drugs should get a 10-year jail sentence, except in exceptional circumstances.
