The true scale of the financial cost of the country drug addiction problem - an estimated €1bn in five years - has been laid bare in previously unreleased figures.
The running average for treating, providing social welfare, free travel, housing and other benefits, including the heroin substitute methadone in prison, is around a quarter of a billion a year. The figure is actually decreasing, by €5m last year.
But in 2009, as the country was in the grip of financial crisis and mass emigration, a massive €277m was required to treat drug addicts.
The figures are included in the State's submission to the EU's Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and published in its report for 2014.
The Irish report to the EMCDDA contains remarkable figures not before published about the extent of government expenditure on helping drug addicts.
It reveals that the State is currently funding some 220 treatment and rehabilitation community drugs projects via the HSE.
Source: irish Independent, 08/11/2015
Safer Student Nights
eBulletin
Poll
