A report – covering Offaly, Laois, Longford and Westmeath – also found there appeared to be a "chronic problem" with heroin users accessing methadone.
The report by the Midland Regional Drugs Task Force said alcohol remained by far the main problem drug and that, in some areas, excessive drinking appeared to be "accepted as normal", both by teenagers and adults.
The research, entitled Close to Home, found, in all four areas studied, local drug markets had created an "atmosphere of fear and intimidation" for some local people.
It revealed 76 people had died from drugs in the region between 1999 and 2005 and that 34 of these were aged under 29, including five under 19.
The 130-page report documents the extent to which heroin has spread throughout the region:
* Treatment cases for opiates (mainly heroin) jumped from 128 in 2004 to 188 in 2007 – a rise of almost 50%.
* Opiates accounted for 27% of all treatment cases in 2007, second to alcohol, and far ahead of the third main drug, cannabis (5%).
* Heroin, other opiates and methadone were implicated in 29 of the 55 (52%) deaths from poisonings.
* The number of heroin users injecting rose from 57 in 2004 to 74 in 2007 – up 30%.
* Prosecutions for possessing or supplying heroin more than doubled from 62 in 2003 to 133 in 2006.
The report said treatment and Garda data indicated "the heroin market may be growing steadily in the area".
It said heroin was rising in two medium-sized towns in Laois and Westmeath studied, in a small town in Longford and in a small community in Offaly.
The emergence of heroin in treatment centres in Longford was particularly sharp, with opiate cases jumping from just one in 2004 to 23 in 2007.
Half of the opiate cases are in Westmeath, where numbers have risen from 65 in 2004 to 99 in 2007.
The report said the number of opiate cases in Laois had actually fallen, but this was because the waiting list was "excessively long" and heroin users had stopped presenting. It said some users reported being jailed was the only way to access methadone.
Overall, the report said there appeared to be a "chronic problem" accessing methadone and waiting lists were "lengthy and intractable".
Elsewhere, the report documented a sharp rise in cocaine use, with treatment cases jumping from 12 in 2004 to 29 in 2007. Prosecutions for cocaine rose from 34 in 2003 to 173 in 2006. Although cannabis remained the most used drug, the number of treatment cases fell from 45 to 35.
The report said 24% of people accessing treatment left school at primary level and a further 27% left after their junior cert.
Source: Cormac O’Keeffe, The Irish Examiner, 24/05/2010
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