Dr John Ryan wonders why it is deemed acceptable for musicians and artists to take drugs, even though drugtaking in sport is so roundly condemned In healthcare, we see the consequences of drug use every day in our patients, be it through cocaine-related heart attacks, hepatitis C from intravenous drug use, or a host of [...]
A follow-up survey on drug use in Ireland will include for the first time specific data on alcohol misuse. The National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) intends to commission shortly a repeat of the 2006/2007 Drug Prevalence Survey, but with additional questions designed to estimate the prevalence of alcohol and cannabis dependence in the general [...]
Heavy use of the high-potency form of cannabis known as sinsemilla or ‘skunk’ has been shown to dramatically increase the risk of developing psychotic illnesses, psychiatrists have found. People who smoke skunk are in fact almost seven times more likely to develop psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia than those who use traditional hash, according to a [...]
Re: Self-evident when it suits! Dear Editor, Cathal Ó’Súilliobháin (‘Enjoy cocaine responsibly’; IMT, 13th November, 2009) refutes the statement (probably correctly) that ‘all illegal drugs are very dangerous’ (on the basis of the ‘overwhelming weight of scientific evidence’), and along with it the statement that ‘there are some facts that are self-evident’ (again, probably correctly). [...]
Dr Cathal Ó Súilliobháin — a leading GP drug expert — says that policy on drug use has become based on myths that the public have come to accept and this thinking directs politicians and health managers – not common sense There are some facts that are self-evident. All illegal drugs are very dangerous. In [...]
Dr Cathal Ó Súilliobháin — a GP working in addiction counselling — writes that the current policy of weekly testing is costly and not evidence-based The cost of a urinalysis test for drugs of abuse is around €11. In Ireland, it is recommended that patients on methadone treatment have a test at least once weekly. [...]
There has been a massive rise in the number of cocaine users treated for their addiction, a study from the Health Research Board (HRB) has found. Two reports from the HRB on trends in treated cocaine and opiate use between 2002 and 2007 also revealed a significant increase in new cases of opiate use in [...]
Terence Cosgrave asks if we are actually subsidising the illegal drug industry by restricting the supply of drugs. Last week, I wrote in this space about the need to adopt a more practical and saner approach to the issue of illegal drugs. The big question that needs to be resolved is why there is such [...]
Dear Editor, I’d like to congratulate Terence Cosgrave on a superb editorial in the July 10 issue (www.imt.ie/opinion/2009/07/time_for_new_attitude_on_addic.html), in which he outlines the need for change in legal policy on drug use, violence and violent crime. Portugal has recently de-criminalised drug use in the sense that drug use is no longer an imprisonable offence – [...]
Terence Cosgrave writes that we have created a massive problem of violence and criminal gangs by our attitude to drug users — which is helping no-one but the criminals who profit from the system. It’s time for a change. Part of the fallout of having a two-tier society is that social trends and issues that [...]
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