Methadone clinics and injection centres 'needed to counter fentanyl threat'
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Ireland needs to prepare for the arrival of fentanyl which will be much harder to deal with than heroin, one of the country’s leading drug addiction experts has said.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
The rise in its use comes in the wake of a Taliban-introduced ban on the Afghan poppy crop used to manufacture heroin. Up to 90% of the crop has been destroyed, resulting in a heroin drought.
Dr Austin O’Carroll said measures such as increased provision of methadone would help address the needs of heroin addicts who are vulnerable to fentanyl use.
He is medical director of Safetynet and director of the North Dublin City GP Training Programme. He is also a founding member of the Partnership of Health Equity.
Safetynet Primary Care is a medical charity that aims to deliver the highest possible standards of health care to homeless people and other marginalised groups.
He said if more doctors were willing to provide methadone “there would be a lesser need for fentanyl”.
“You have a better chance of going on a methadone programme in Dublin than in the country” he said.
“We have had people coming up on the bus to get their methadone and that in itself causes huge problems. If we could stabilise more people around Ireland, they wouldn’t look for fentanyl”.
Dr O’Carroll was speaking as the number of drug overdose deaths in the US has reached record levels due to fentanyl use. The drug is involved in nearly 70% of overdose deaths according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Speaking to the Mr O’Carroll said it is likely that Ireland will face something similar to when the first wave of heroin addiction hit Dublin’s inner city in the 1980s, when fentanyl arrives here.
“It’s a more powerful drug than heroin” he said. “With heroin you can inject it and smoke it, but you rarely die from smoking it. You can die from smoking fentanyl.
“It’s extremely strong and it’s trafficked in smaller amounts, so from the point of view of a drug dealer it is easy to smuggle and conceal.
“It was licensed in the US as a painkiller but now it’s being produced illegally. It is so powerful it will cause more deaths like what is happening in the US and Canada”.
Ana Liffey Drug Project director Tony Duffin echoed Mr O’Carroll’s calls, saying the Government must put measures in place to prevent needless deaths from fentanyl.
“Whenever there is a reduction in the supply of any drug, heroin in this case, something will replace it, and that’s fentanyl” he said.
“We need to have safe centres opened before this comes to Ireland and that includes injection centres. When there is a heroin drought, we usually see more people looking for treatment and rehab which is really important, therefore we have to have a safe system in place.
"We have time to prepare for this and we have an opportunity to reduce potential overdose deaths.”
The European Centre for Drugs and Drug addiction estimated about 1m people in the EU used opioids in 2021.