The city must ‘embrace’ drug users in order to overcome their issues, according to Lord Mayor, Cllr Chris O’Leary.
Mr O’Leary echoed the sentiments of a number of councillors at Monday’s local authority meeting who urged proactive measures to be taken in order to reduce drug use in the city, and limit the ramifications it can have.
Councillors urged a ‘multi-agency approach’, including ‘medically supervised’ injection centres.
Mr O’Leary said: “It is a challenge, but we must embrace it and not be afraid of it. We must have a multi-agency approach to handle it.”
Cllr Mary Shields said the benefits of medically supervised centres were huge. They would limit the public’s exposure to drug users and paraphernalia, as well as providing urgently needed medical assistance to users.
Ms Shields said: “There is always a worry that they would overdose and die in the toilets. And when people are shooting up in the streets, the paraphernalia is left behind to be picked up by anyone.”
She added that medically supervised clinics, similar to those operated by the HSE which distribute methadone, would reduce the usage of dirty needles and have trained staff on hand to help users who overdose.
Source: Evening Echo, 10/02/16
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