A new all-Ireland survey on the use of illegal drugs has contradicted a United Nations study that claimed the Irish were Europe's highest users of ecstasy and amphetamines.
The Government-backed study of almost 8,500 people in the Republic and Northern Ireland by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) said 19 per cent of respondents in the 15 to 64 age group have used an illegal drug in their lifetime.
This figure rises to 27.7 per cent in the 25-34 age group and 25.2 per cent among 15 to 24-year-olds.
One in eighteen people have used drugs in the past year, and one in 33 have taken them in the past month.
The main findings of the NACD survey - which consisted of questionnaires and face-to-face interviews that were carried out between October 2002 and last April - are that cannabis is by far the most widely used illegal drug, with over 18 per cent of all respondents having used it.
Three per cent of all people in Ireland have used cocaine, amphetamines or LSD in the past, while 3.8 per cent have taken ecstasy, 0.4 per cent have used heroin and 4 per cent have tried "magic" mushrooms.
Compared to similar surveys undertaken in European Union countries, Irish amphetamine consumption is third highest in the region, while Ireland also comes third in terms of ecstasy use.
Other notable points are that drug use is higher among men (24.4 per cent) than women (13.5 per cent). Around twice as men as women used cannabis, amphetamines, ecstasy and cocaine, and three times as many used cocaine and LSD.
However, twice as many women, particularly older women, used prescription sedatives as men. Over 15 per cent of women used them, with 21.8 per cent of 55 to 64 year-olds using prescription drugs.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report last week claimed Ireland topped the list of European countries in terms of ecstasy and amphetamine use. Only Australia and Thailand were higher in the rest of the world.
However, Dr Hamish Sinclair of the Health Research Board said this morning the UN figures were based on two surveys that were carried out in 1998 and 1999. "Comparisons shouldn't be taken at face value because they used different methodologies," he said.
The NACD survey was a more realistic indication of Ireland's position among European drug use statistics, Dr Sinclair said, noting that Irish drug use was "about average".
But Mr Des Corrigan, chairman of the NACD, said our place in Europe should not be taken as reassuring. "It just gives us an indication of how much we have to do." He was encouraged by the comparatively low use of drugs among young people, as it would help to reduce peer pressure on children, because it showed "not everyone was using drugs".
