Disapproval from local communities for plans to provide additional treatment centres for heroin addicts.
New rules for GPs (General Practitioners) who dispense heroin substitute methadone came into effect last month. The terms reduce the number of patients who may be treated in a doctor's surgery.
As a result the EHB (Eastern Health Board) has decided to dispense methadone to addicts at their clinics across Dublin.
Crumlin is an area of the city that has struggled with a heroin problem for the last two decades. Some people are not happy that their local health centre will facilitate a methadone clinic for one hundred people.
Fine Gael Councillor Ruairi McGinley believes that the situation should have remained as it was, and that there is now the possibility of,
Attracting people in a chaotic condition into a residential area and into a child clinic.
Terry Martin is chairperson of the Crumlin Road and District Residents Association. He disagrees with how heroin addiction is treated by the EHB,
We don’t see methadone as being the solution to the problem. Methadone is just a different form of drug.
The health board rejects these criticisms. Pat McLoughlin from the addiction services at the EHB explains, people who receive methadone are already attending local clinics where community welfare officers, public health nurses and dental services are based.
The EHB says it will open seven similar centres around Dublin by the end of the year, such is the demand for treatment of heroin addiction.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 15 November 1998. The reporter is Aileen O’Meara.
