State authorities must apply "positive planning principles" to rapidly developing new communities in the west if social deprivation leading to drug abuse is to be stemmed, according to the Western Region Drugs Taskforce.
The region also requires its own substance abuse medical team and the restoration of the in-patient treatment unit which was shut down in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, several years ago, the taskforce's acting co-ordinator Fiona Walsh, has said.
After the publication of the taskforce's first strategic plan for Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, Ms Walsh said that cocaine use appeared to be on the increase in the region across all socio-economic levels, along with combinations of cannabis and alcohol.
The Government has agreed to fund a management team to implement the taskforce's strategy, but support for all services, including in-patient treatment, was imperative, she said.
The strategy, which was published in Galway yesterday by Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív, represents the outcome of a series of consultations in the region in late 2004.
The plan was submitted to the National Drugs Strategy Team last April and funding was approved for selected initiatives, including funding a management team.
The plan stresses that integrated approaches and multi-agency co-operation are required to tackle problems of substance misuse at all levels, according to the taskforce's outgoing chair- man, Pádraig Hughes.
It focuses on the four pillars of the national drug strategy - research, prevention and education, treatment and supply reduction - to develop effective solutions.
Analysing existing research and population trends, the plan notes that "desertification" of pockets of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon - and consequent poor social and physical infrastructure for those remaining - may encourage patterns of substance misuse.
It notes that although many people expect and enjoy a "good quality of life" in the countryside, lack of provision for leisure and recreation could increase the vulnerability of rural young people in relation to alcohol and illegal drug misuse.
While "problem drug use" is "more likely to occur in deprived urban areas", there has been a growing recognition that illegal drugs, particularly cannabis and ecstasy, are readily accessible in every part of the State, it notes.
The strategy recommends that positive planning principles be applied to foster safer and healthier communities and should be made a priority in small town development.
It recommends providing increased access to mentoring and neighbourhood youth projects and increased Garda resources for community policing.
It advocates the introduction of a responsible sale of alcohol programme, a ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorship and adequate resourcing of educational initiatives in schools.
Funding should be made available to communities for parenting programmes which would raise awareness, it adds, and a multi-agency local drugs monitoring network should be developed to identify changes in substance use trends.
