GARDAI in the south east say that use of illegal drugs has steadily increased in the area since the mid-1990s, but there is little or no evidence of heroin abuse.
Official figures for the Waterford-Kilkenny Garda division show that use of the most popular drugs - cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines, or "speed" - began to rise significantly in 1994 and the trend has continued. The experience has been similar in Wexford and other areas.
While the region is not known to have any "drug barons" operating on the scale of major dealers in Dublin, Waterford city has two or three substantial suppliers, according to a Garda spokesman.
Events in the city took a sinister turn last November with the disappearance of a Tramore man, Mr Martin Nolan, shortly before he was due to appear at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court on charges of possessing for sale several thousand pounds worth of cannabis and ecstasy. At the time a blood-stained scene was discovered in woodland near the city. The blood was later confirmed to be that of Mr Nolan, who is still missing.
More than 30 people, all from the Waterford area, have been arrested at various times in connection with his disappearance and questioned under the Drugs Trafficking Act. Garda figures for 1998 show there were 465 drugs seizures in Waterford-Kilkenny, including 350 in Waterford city, compared with 421 and 307 respectively in 1997. A further "substantial increase" will be recorded in the 1999 figures which are soon to be published, a spokesman said.
The Garda drugs unit in Kilkenny has recently been expanded, but a spokesman said that while use of cannabis, ecstasy and speed had undoubtedly increased, alcohol abuse continued to cause more social problems in the city.
A six-month study completed recently by the Kilkenny Drugs Initiative, a cross-community body which includes representatives of the Garda and the South Eastern Health Board, found that some children begin using ecstasy at 14. Some 16-year-olds were using cocaine while people "of all ages" were using speed, the report said.
It did not attempt to quantify the extent of illegal drug use, but said the level of drug usage in schools, particularly of cigarettes and cannabis, was "much greater than people realise".
A Garda spokesman in New Ross, Co Wexford, said the town was "no different from any town or village in Ireland" in that drug usage had been on the increase since the mid-1990s.
