Treatment waiting times for heroin addicts down to one week

Waiting times for treatment of heroin addicts locally have been slashed, according to a senior Garda.

Superintendent Marie Skehill said the wait for Galway’s methadone clinic has “reduced from six months down to one week”.

“That is positive,” she added.

She was responding to queries from Galway City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) chairman, Councillor Mike Cubbard (Ind), who asked about the prevalence of heroin in the city.

Cllr Cubbard asked for an update on how many heroin addicts were in the city, having been told at a previous JPC meeting that there were 500.

Supt Skehill said she didn’t want to give out specific numbers that she could not stand over.

In her latest crime statistics update, Supt Skehill outlined that there were 70 seizures of drugs for sale or supply up to the end of August 2018. That represented a reduction of 13% compared with the same period last year.

The number of seizures of drugs for simple possession feel by 7% to 152 incidents.

Cannabis with a street value of €160,189 was seized during those eight months. There was some €72,340 worth of cocaine seized as well as €18,375 worth of heroin, €48,616 worth of ecstasy, and €72,409 worth of ‘other’ drugs.

Councillor Billy Cameron (Labour) said society should not “demonise” people with addiction problems. He said Ireland should take the lead of other European countries and treat the drugs problem as a healthcare issue.