Irish Examiner view: Worldwide effects of the Gaza conflict
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The spiralling effects of that conflict continue to reach out into different areas and different spheres of influence, but we should not lose sight of the terrible toll being suffered by the innocent in that conflict. That is the strongest possible argument for a permanent ceasefire.
As outlined here yesterday, drug users are being trained by the HSE to prevent and treat overdoses after highly potent synthetic opioids were found to be available in Ireland.
The new Circle Peer to Peer programme will start with a six-month pilot phase across 16 locations from January: The programme will train drug users and people who are often with drug users to prevent and treat overdoses with naloxone, a drug which is used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids.
This is a timely intervention given recent experiences in Cork and Dublin in particular, where there were 17 and 57 overdoses respectively, with the synthetic opioid nitazene suspected as the main cause of those overdoses.
Other synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have ravaged large swathes of the US, and one of the most effective emergency treatments of those who overdose on those opioids is narcan, which is the name widely used in the US for naloxone. It makes eminent sense to train those using opioids in the use of naloxone — if someone is in the throes of addiction to a drug as addictive as fentanyl then preaching a message of abstention may be well-intentioned, but is completely ineffectual.
Is it possible to go even further in making naloxone available to those who need it? In the US, the opioid problem is so great in some cities that the local authorities have installed boxes filled with free naloxone kits in public parks and municipal buildings; in others local authorities simply post out free kits to those seeking them.
Whether such drastic steps are in our future remains to be seen.
The drug problem is so various, so multifaceted, that a single remedy or solution is impossible to imagine, but that does not mean there is no value in trying a variety of responses. And here is one response which has the potential to save lives.
With Christmas approaching fast many readers’ thoughts will turn to those far away, naturally enough. It is the obvious time of year to consider friends and family who are not at home.
A nation with our history of emigration means many households will be without relatives who cannot make it home for the festivities this year for various reasons.
One of those reasons is Ireland’s long-standing commitment to peacekeeping duties with the United Nations, a commitment which means Irish men and women are familiar with what Christmas is like in places such as the Golan Heights in Syria or Bamako in Mali.
Readers will find in today’s paper Colin Sheridan’s memories of Christmases on duty with the Irish Defence Forces in far foreign fields.
Despite the exotic locations named in the piece, the peacekeeping experience somewhere like the Lebanon is a stubbornly Irish matter in our national imagination. Perhaps it’s because there has been an Irish connection to that particular country for so long that one easily conjures an image of sun-reddened Irish soldiers enjoying a Yuletide far from home.
That is not the same as finding Christmas easy a couple of thousand kilometres from family. Ireland has been lucky in the calibre of person which has represented us on those missions over the years. They deserve our thanks and the very best wishes this Christmas.