A leading addiction service is predicting a 70% jump in admissions to its adolescent centre this year.
Aiséirí treatment service said alcohol was the primary drug of addiction for more than half of all admissions — adolescents and adults combined. It has called on the Government not to cut excise duty on alcohol in next week’s budget.
Chief executive Paul Conlon said admissions among adult women could increase by as much as 64% this year.
Launching the 2013 annual report, Mr Conlon said there were 119 admissions to their specialist adolescent centre last year.
He said there were 101 for the first six months of this year and one in three were aged between 15 and 17.
Mr Conlon said that if the trend continued, the number of adolescents attending their Kilkenny-based service would rise by up to 70%.
Figures for 2013 show cannabis accounted for 62% of admissions to the adolescent centre which caters for 15 to 21-year-olds.
Alcohol was the primary drug in 17% of cases, but many of the cannabis cases involved polydrug users.
Almost three quarters of adult admissions were for alcohol addiction (238 out of 325 cases).
Mr Conlon said 30% of adult admissions were women in 2013, but the figure in one of its units, last June, was 43%. Aiséirí has adult units in Tipperary, Wexford and Waterford.
Source: Cormac O'Keeffe, Irish Examiner, 07/10/14
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