Drug-related deaths have increased by 50 per cent since records began in 2004, according to the Minister for Health. Leo Varadkar there had been a slight decrease in the number of drug-related deaths, from 645 in 2011 to 633 in 2012, but the overall trend was up by half in the past decade.
Some 5,300 people had died in this period and “each of those deaths was a tragedy in its own right”. However he was “firmly of the view” that many of these deaths were avoidable, particularly those involving heroin or methadone. To prevent these tragedies, the Minister said the Health Service Executive (HSE) was to begin supplying 600 opiate users and their families “with an antidote to drug overdoses”.
Mr Varadkar said the antidote Naloxone reversed the effects of drugs such as heroin, morphine and methadone if a user overdosed.
Source: Marie O'Halloran, Irish Times, 06/02/15
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