Analysis: European Union figures out last November articulated clearly what many frontline addiction and healthcare workers have been noticing in Ireland for several years. Heroin use and addiction in Ireland are rising at an alarming rate.
The EU figures, published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, showed that among the 15-64 age group there is now an average of eight cases of heroin use per 1,000 population in Ireland, whereas the EU average is four. This places us at the top of the league of EU countries where opioid use (which in the main relates to heroin) is recorded.
The mortality rate among Irish adults due to drug-induced deaths is also high – the second-highest in the EU – with about 70 deaths per million population, which is 3½ times higher than the EU average.
Source: Brian O'Connell, Irish Times, 09/01/2012
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