The latest figures on drug-related deaths and deaths among drug users in Ireland, up to 2012, have been published.¹  The number of deaths has decreased slightly from 645 in 2011 to 633 in 2012. Of the total number of deaths in 2012, 350 people died as a result of poisoning (i.e. toxic effect of drug[s] in the body), and 283 were drug users who died as a result of trauma, such as hanging, or from a medical cause, for example liver disease. It is important to note that the figures in this update supersede all previously published figures. Similarly, figures for 2012 will be revised when data relating to new cases become available, i.e. as more inquest cases close. For example, in January 2014 the number of drug-related deaths for 2011 was 607, but over the past 11 months this has risen to the 645 figure we now have recorded.

Joan Moore, former content editor of Drugnet Ireland, died in January.  Joan had been one of the longest serving members of HRB staff and had spent most of the last 10 years working with the drug and alcohol research team.  We greatly admired Joan’s erudition and intellectual gifts and her skilful management of much of the HRB’s published output and we know from her family that she brought the same enthusiasm and enjoyment of work to the practical tasks in her home.  So, it is poignant that she never got to use her retirement present, a workbench on which she had planned to hone her carpentry skills with the same diligence as she used to keep abreast of developments in editing and scientific communication. 

Joan loved language and writing and was drawn to the silly and absurd and great story telling of every kind from The loved one and Scoop, an obvious favourite for an editor, to the wonderful Yon lion’s et our Albert.  We lost her technical gifts when she retired but it is her wit and wisdom that we now remember most.  She was genuinely interested in and concerned with the minutiae of her workmates’ lives and willingly shared the joys and concerns of her own beloved family.  To them, Paul her husband, Tim her son and our good friend Katie, her daughter, we express our deepest sympathies.

On Sunday 1 February 2015 the National Family Support Network (NFSN) held its 16^th annual Service of Commemoration and Hopein remembrance of loved ones lost to substance misuse and related causes. Its purpose is to publicly support and offer hope to families living with the devastation that substance misuse causes.

Those in attendance included the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke;Commander Kieran Carey, aide-de-camp to the Taoiseach; Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan;Bishop Éamonn Walsh, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin,and other religious representatives; and family members, friends, and many people working in the drugs area. Music was provided by the soprano Linda Allen and the North Dublin Community Gospel Choir.