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Topic quick links:
Cover page
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All articles in this issue:
Alcohol Action Ireland conference
Alcohol pricing model applied to Ireland
National Community Action on Alcohol Pilot Project
Fianna Fáil publishes drugs action plan
Changing drug trends but static drug policies
Ireland participates in innovative policy think-tank
What is the Pompidou Group?
Patterns and trends in cigarette smoking in Ireland, 2003–2013
Drug markets and the internet
Motivational intervention for problem substance users in prison
Patients on methadone programmes, Wheatfield prison
Report of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate
Towards ‘a better city for all’
EMCDDA Insights
From Drugnet Europe
Recent publications
Upcoming events
New Minister of State with responsibility for Drugs

In April 2015 Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD was appointed Minister of State for the Drugs Strategy in the Department of Health. He is also Minister of State with responsibility for New Communities, Culture and Equality, which brief is spread across the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar welcomed the appointment, commenting ‘There is a lot of merit in appointing a cross-Departmental Minister for Drugs, as there is a significant overlap between Health and Justice in this area, ranging from treatment and prevention to enforcement and diversion. The new role will bring together the work and actions of the HSE and Gardaí among others.’

The Minister went on to note, ‘Aodhán is being appointed at a good time as the Department has just started work on the new National Drugs Strategy. Extra funding of €2.1m has been allocated in 2015 to provide more residential treatment and rehabilitation places, more needle-exchanges and the naloxone pilot project. I have also ended the cycle of cuts in funding for Local Drugs and Alcohol Taskforces.’ Minister Varadkar also noted the new Minister’s commitment to the equality agenda and his ‘excellent track record of community work’.

See separate report on ‘A Better City for All’ seminar later in this issue for a report on one of the new Drugs Minister’s first public speaking engagements.




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Alcohol Action Ireland conference

Alcohol Action Ireland held their conferenceGirls, Women and Alcohol: The changing nature of female alcohol consumption in Ireland’  on 21 April 2015. Katherine Brown, director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies in the UK described the changes in female alcohol consumption, from having a large role in the temperance movement, to the ‘ladette’ drinking culture in the 1990s, to the recent rise of ‘mummy’s wine time’, whereby wine is now a socially acceptable coping mechanism for women trying to balance work and home life.  She said we now live in an alcogenic environment, and outlined the role that marketing to women by the alcohol industry had played. Alcohol is marketed to women as glamorous, sophisticated, feminine, sexy, often placed alongside lipstick, handbags and shoes.


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Alcohol pricing model applied to Ireland

In 2013 the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group (SARG) at Sheffield University was commissioned by the Irish government to adapt the Sheffield pricing model for alcohol to Ireland in order to appraise the potential impact of different  pricing policies. The report was published on 11 March 2015.1 Some key findings from the report are presented here.



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