On 12 November 2018, the Department of Health’s Drugs Policy Unit and the Health Research Board (HRB) will host the first annual National Drugs Forum in the Aviva Stadium.

The objectives of the forum are:

•     To support evidence-informed practice and service delivery

•     To promote participation of communities, service users, and their families in national structures

•     To strengthen the implementation and performance of the national drugs strategy.

The objectives and actions of the national drugs strategy, Reducing harm, supporting recovery, are underpinned by the values of equity and partnership and a commitment to an evidence-informed approach. The involvement of communities in the response to problem drug use is key to realising the strategy’s aims. The strategy also underlines the place of evidence in service development and delivery. It recognises how important it is to engage stakeholders both in the implementation of research findings and in sharing learned experience.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) has published the world’s first national LGBTI+ Youth Strategy.¹ This follows on from a commitment in the 2016 Programme for Government to ‘develop an LGBT Youth Strategy that will encompass education, youth services, mental health and other issues’ (p. 106).² A key part of the process of developing the strategy was a DCYA-led consultation with young people from across Ireland, the findings of which have also been published.³

The Quality and Capacity Building Initiative (QCBI) of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) has been under development since 2016, with progress being made on implementing some key components over 2017/18. The QCBI aims to take a coordinated approach to enhancing capacity, knowledge and quality in prevention, and early intervention for children, young people and their families, with a focus on those at risk of developing poor outcomes. It aims to ensure that effective practice is harnessed and applied across the relevant services and supports. There are four key strands to the initiative that set out to embed and enhance prevention and early intervention in children and young people’s policy, service provision, and practice.

In September 2015, at an historic United Nations (UN) Summit, the 193 member countries of the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.¹ Within that resolution, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 related targets were announced. The objectives of this agenda are to leave no one behind and to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities, and tackle climate change. The 17 goals are a call to action aimed at all countries, poor, rich and middle-income, to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. Goal 3 calls for countries to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. As one of the 13 related targets, it encourages action by countries to ‘strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol’.

The National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) published its latest figures on treated problem drug use (excluding alcohol) in May 2018.¹ These figures exclude those who reported alcohol as their primary problem substance as this will be reported in a separate bulletin. In the seven-year period, 2010—2016, 63,187 cases were treated for problem drug use (excluding alcohol). The number of cases increased from 8,806 in 2010 to 9,227 in 2016.

The following abstracts are cited from published journal articles recently added to the repository of the HRB National Drugs Library at www.drugsandalcohol.ie

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland, with over 100 people dying from diseases caused by tobacco use each week; this represents almost one in five of all deaths.¹ The Health Service Executive (HSE) has recently published a report detailing findings from an Irish study that examined smoking behaviours in Ireland among adults aged 15+ using data from the Healthy Ireland Survey and The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).² Key findings from the report are discussed below.

Policies designed to discourage adolescents from smoking have been at the forefront of tobacco prevention in recent years. In Ireland, the Tobacco free Ireland report of 2013 stated that the protection of children must be prioritised with regard to initiatives outlined in the policy.¹ A number of studies have been conducted regarding interventions for preventing adolescent smoking, including research evaluating policies to restrict access and raise awareness of risk. While some studies have examined perceptions of risk and its association with smoking, other studies have investigated correlates in the domestic and social sphere. These include associations with parental monitoring, relationships with parents, family structure, truancy from school, and peer smoking.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland.¹ As smoking typically initiates in youth, and given the highly addictive properties of nicotine, a high proportion will continue to smoke into adulthood with negative health consequences. The Health Service Executive (HSE) has recently published a report detailing findings from an Irish study that examined smoking behaviours in Ireland among children aged 9–18 years using data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey.² Key findings from the report are discussed below.

Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) delivers a scientific service that supports the Irish criminal justice system by analysing samples that are gathered at crime scenes (e.g. DNA, chemistry, and drugs). Substances are submitted for analysis mainly by An Garda Síochána but also by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), Customs and Excise, and the Military Police. In order to monitor the chain of custody, FSI has set procedures in place: substances are first accepted by FSI reception or case intake staff, then items are stored safely and securely, after which they are passed to a relevant scientist for analysis. In May 2018, FSI published its second annual report.¹ What follows is an overview of the results and progress made by the FSI team in 2017.

On 25 June 2018, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, launched the joint Irish Prison Service (IPS) and Probation Service (PS) strategic plan for 2018–2020.¹ This is the third joint strategy of these agencies.
It includes the following actions:

• Improve sentence management
• Maximise joint working between IPS and PS
• Develop responses for female offenders
• Enhance engagement with victims of crime
• Develop innovative responses for specific groups of offenders
• Enhance offender employability
• Engage with service users
• Promote research and evaluation
• Improve provision of drug and alcohol services

There are 12 institutions in the Irish prison system, comprising 10 traditional ‘closed’ institutions and two open centres, which operate with minimal internal and perimeter security. The majority of female prisoners are accommodated in the purpose-built Dóchas Centre adjacent to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, while the remainder are located in a separate part of Limerick Prison.¹ Between 1970 and 2011, the Irish prison population increased by 400%.² Mental disorders, substance misuse and homelessness have been highlighted as key areas of need among Irish prisoners. However, although the prevalence of these vulnerabilities have been studied by health services and governmental or non-governmental organisations, they have not been systematically reviewed.

Suicide is one of the major causes of death in many populations, particularly adolescents, and poisoning or drug overdose (OD) is the leading method of attempted suicide. Public health interventions aim to reduce the morbidity and mortality of self-poisoning by limiting the availability of potentially toxic medications to at-risk populations. An understanding of the preceding factors and potential triggers of self-poisoning and drug overdose may aid in the development of specific intervention strategies.