Ireland's biggest treatment clinic for heroin addicts last year recorded the first decline in its 15-year history in the number of new heroin addicts presenting for treatment.
The director of Dublin's Merchant's Quay service, Tony Geoghegan, said while the decline was a positive development, it may in some part be due to the increased use of cocaine in the Republic.
"There are probably a lot of factors involved but certainly cocaine is much more easily available and it is cheaper now," he said.
Last year the first all-Ireland drug-user survey by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs revealed cocaine was the fastest growing drug of choice, having been used by 3 per cent of the population.
In the East Coast Area Health Board, 6.3 per cent of all adults had tried cocaine. Among 15- to 34-year-olds in the area that figure is 10.5 per cent.
At Merchant's Quay the number of new heroin addicts presenting for treatment last year was 450, down from just over 600 in 2003. Numbers have increased every year since the centre's establishment.
The new figures are contained in the project's annual report, due for publication today.
Mr Geoghegan was strongly critical of the Government's funding of drug treatment services, saying resources were "deplorable".
While half of the State's 14,500 heroin addicts were currently being maintained on the heroin replacement drug methadone, many were "slipping in and out of drug use".
Merchant's Quay last year saw a 9 per cent rise, to just over 28,000, in the number of visits by addicts to its needle-exchange programme. Mr Geoghegan said this increase, against the backdrop of a decreasing level of new users presenting, proved that many being maintained on methadone were continuously relapsing into opiate use.
There was also a 20 per cent rise, to 71,688, of visits by homeless addicts to its services.
The Government needed to make an urgent investment in treatment services if drug users were to develop the skills needed to progress to drug-free lives.
"It is deplorable that there are less than 30 detoxification beds and only 150 residential drug-free beds to treat approximately 14,500 problem opiate users," Mr Geoghegan said.
Ireland needed to treble the number of detoxification beds to bring it into line with international best practice. In the absence of the State providing these improved services, Merchant's Quay planned to expand its residential treatment options in Dublin and Leinster in coming years.
Last year 3,300 heroin users were treated at Merchant's Quay, including the 450 new users.
A total of 1,240 homeless drug users accessed its crisis support service and approximately 7,200 supportive interventions with clients of its homeless services took place.
There were 2,841 nursing interventions at the project relating to intravenous drug use. These included treatment for abscesses, leg ulcers, cuts and wounds, skin rashes and burns.
