The Eastern Regional Health Authority is rapidly expanding its drug treatment services in response to the new heroin crisis, which has caused the deaths of eight addicts in Dublin and 14 in Scotland.
Last night, Minister of State Mr Eoin Ryan, who co-ordinates the National Drugs Strategy, issued an urgent appeal to heroin-users to come forward for treatment. The health boards had put in place emergency assessment services to meet any increased demand which may arise, he said in a statement.
Heroin seized recently by police in Scotland and Ireland is being examined for signs of contamination and efforts are being made to try to discover the source of the heroin.
A garda chief superintendent is being appointed to lead the search for the source of the contaminated drugs.
In Dublin, it appears that one of the principal sources has been a heroin dealer, who is in his late 20s, in the south of the city. Local sources say this man has been supplying heroin in the Crumlin area and that the victims identified so far were among his customers.
It is also thought that the heroin may have come to Ireland and Scotland through Amsterdam, although its country of origin has not yet been identified.
Last night Mr Donal O'Shea, the chief executive officer of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, which has been co-ordinating the public health response to the problem, said the deaths of so many heroin addicts had brought fear and trembling to Dublin city.
He said it was a matter of concern to the ERHA that a high number of abusers in the city were not seeking treatment. "That is a challenge for us," he conceded.
Mr O'Shea added that deaths associated with heroin were not unusual but the ones occurring over the past two months were in addition to the "normal toll of deaths from this drug".
Members of the ERHA, meeting at the authority's headquarters last night, were critical that just 4,500 of the 13,000 heroin addicts in the city are receiving treatment. Up to 400 addicts who want treatment are on a waiting list.
Mr O'Shea said the number of treatment places the authority could provide for heroin addicts was being expanded and he hoped to have eliminated the present waiting list within a few months. "We have really accelerated the programme now because of this."
He added that all service providers had learnt lessons from the present situation and in future the coroner, acute hospitals and public health departments and other service providers would be working more closely together.
The chief executive officer also confirmed that the hours of the health board helpline for addicts, set up to deal with the present crisis, would be reviewed. It operates at present from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
The wholesale price of heroin has fallen dramatically in Europe in the past year and large consignments have been reaching the State, mainly from Amsterdam. The principal source of heroin in the Netherlands is through Turkish organised crime gangs. They buy the drugs from sources in south-western Asian countries where it is refined, often in very crude and unsanitary conditions.