Drug trends and deaths examined ahead of injection facility for Cork City
Medically Supervised Centre Portugal's Injection Drug
New focused research on drug-related deaths, drug misuse and drug trends in Cork City is under way as part of efforts to establish a supervised injection facility (SIF) in the city.
The HSE has engaged health experts at UCC to conduct the research following the visit in May of a multi-agency delegation from Cork to SIFs in Lisbon.
A SIF is described by the HSE as a clean, safe, healthcare environment where people can inject drugs, which are obtained elsewhere, under the supervision of trained health professionals.
SIFs are designed to reduce drug-related overdose deaths; risks of disease transmission through shared needles; and public health risks such as needle-stick injuries. Their staff also work to connect drug users with treatment services.
The Cork City delegation, which included city councillors, gardaí and HSE officials, visited a fixed-site SIF and a mobile SIF in Lisbon, and visited the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) to examine the wider policy approach to drug misuse adopted in Portugal.
In a briefing to the Cork City Joint Policy Committee, David Lane, the HSE’s head of drug and alcohol services in Cork and Kerry, said: “Ireland didn’t fare well” according to a major EMCDDA report earlier this month on drug misuse across the EU, which showed Ireland had the joint third highest rate of drug mortality, along with Finland, behind the UK and Sweden.
“We need to do something about that. This [a SIF] is one of the responses that can be done,” Mr Lane said.
He told the JPC the HSE had engaged with colleagues in UCC and contracted a piece of research to look in detail at the level of need in Cork City, and at the possibility of establishing a SIF in the city in the next number of years.
“It’s not something that will happen overnight. I have been very patient on this for a long number of years, but determined at the same time," he said.
"You need champions to make it happen. And we have a small city with lots of key stakeholders asking for the same thing.”
It is hoped the research will be complete early next year, and that the JPC will be briefed on the findings.