The inaugural More Than That Festival to mark recovery month was held in Naas, Co. Kildare, on 30 September 2023. It was organised by the South Western Regional Drugs and Alcohol Task Force (SWRDATF) area to celebrate recovery from addiction.¹ A series of activities and events were held throughout the day, beginning with the Recovery Champions 5K Run, which featured famous Kildare faces such as former Gaelic footballer Anthony Rainbow, leading out a run/walk in support of addiction recovery.

Background

The Alcohol Programme in the Health Service Executive (HSE) was established in 2016 to address the impact of alcohol-related harm on individuals, families, and children. The programme aims to decrease per capita alcohol use to 9.1% (10.2 litres in 2022), in accordance with the Healthy Ireland Framework 2013–2025.^1,2 The work of the HSE Alcohol Programme involves collaborating with the Department of Health, Alcohol Health Alliance Ireland, and other stakeholders to actively support the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. This involves identifying national priority areas, supporting effective policies, and advocating for evidence-based interventions and community action as well as informing and supporting the public in reducing alcohol use and signposting to support services through the AskAboutAlcohol campaign and website.³

Purpose of scenario development in drug policy

All foresight work involves developing a capacity to identify weak signals, considering how they may react within a specified environment, and determining the level of attention they deserve. Epidemiologists and drug policy experts anticipate greater diversity in patterns of drug use as the plant-based drugs that have dominated the picture in recent decades are partially replaced by synthetic drugs and polydrug use becomes increasingly common. Geopolitical changes, the emergence of new trafficking routes, and other supply-related factors add further complexity. As with any complex system, it is problematic to assign significance to a particular variable in the drugs field, especially if it is difficult to discern. We can easily overlook signals or fail to recognise their potential significance or predict what signals will become trends. There are cognitive as well as imaginative factors that can impede a thoughtful consideration of possible future events, but foresight helps us to identify what these barriers are and allows us to be more playful and open in considering signals. It is a valuable tool for developing anticipatory capacity and considering the range of possible outcomes from currently observable trends.

Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) is a national voluntary agency providing services for homeless people and those that use drugs. There are 22 MQI locations in 13 counties in the Republic of Ireland (see Figure 1). MQI aims to offer accessible, high-quality, and effective services to people dealing with homelessness and addiction in order to meet their complex needs in a non-judgemental and compassionate way. This article highlights services provided by MQI to people who use drugs in Ireland in 2021.¹

A visiting committee is appointed to each Irish prison under the Prisons (Visiting Committees) Act 1925 and the Prisons (Visiting Committees) Order 1925. Members of the 12 visiting committees are appointed by the Minister for Justice for a term not exceeding three years. The function of prison visiting committees is to visit, at frequent intervals, the prison to which they are appointed and hear any complaints that may be made to them by any prisoner. They report to the Minister for Justice regarding any abuses observed or found, and any repairs which they think are urgently needed. Prison visiting committee members have free access, either collectively or individually, to every part of the prison to which their committee is appointed. Information from prison visiting committee reports relating to drug use in prisons for 2021 (n=8) is summarised below.¹

The Ana Liffey Drug Project (ALDP) is a ‘low-threshold, harm reduction’ project working with people who are actively using drugs and experiencing associated problems. ALDP has been offering harm reduction services to people in the north inner city area of Dublin since 1982, from premises at Middle Abbey Street. ALDP offers a wide variety of low-threshold, harm reduction services that provide pathways for people who use drugs out of their current circumstance, including addiction and homelessness.

The services offered in Dublin include:

In October 2023, An Garda Síochána (AGS) published its annual report for 2022.¹ This article first reports on activities related to national policing, followed by national security and intelligence, community safety, and finally statistics for detections of incidents related to the sale and supply of drugs and Garda drug seizures for 2022.

National policing

Gardaí work in various units to fight crime across Ireland. What follows is a brief outline of a selection of the work undertaken by some of these units.

The European Working Group on Drugs Orientated Research (EWODOR) Conference took place on 23–24 October 2023 in Trinity College Dublin, in partnership with Coolmine Therapeutic Community. EWODOR was established in 1983 as a forum for researchers in the drug and alcohol field to share their work and learnings, with a particular focus on drug-free therapeutic communities. It is the oldest European network of researchers working in the sector. Its work has expanded with practitioners becoming members of the group; while maintaining a focus on recovery pathways, EWODOR also explores drug treatment more broadly.

The Courts Service annual report 2022was published on 27 September 2023.¹ While the report presented data for all criminal cases arising within the Irish justice system between January and December 2022, this article only reports on statistics of prosecutions for drug offences.¹ The data provided are for overall drug law offences. The Courts Service in Ireland does not distinguish between the different supply offences and possession/use offences (Courts Service, personal communication, 2017).

Coolmine Therapeutic Community is a drug and alcohol treatment centre providing community, day, and residential services to men and women with problematic substance use and to their families in Ireland. Established in 1973, Coolmine was founded on the philosophies of the therapeutic community approach to addiction treatment. This is primarily a self-help approach in which residents are responsible for their own recovery, with peers and staff acting as facilitators of change. Participants are expected to contribute to the general running of the community and to their own recovery by actively participating in educational activities and in group and individual therapy. This article highlights services provided by Coolmine in 2021.¹

The Danger of Viral Exposure (DOVE) Service in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin was established to meet the specific needs of pregnant women who have or are at risk of blood-borne or sexually transmitted bacterial or viral infections in pregnancy. Exposure may also occur through illicit substance use. Figures from the service for 2022 were published in the hospital’s annual report in 2023.¹

The Tabor Group is a provider of residential addiction treatment services in Ireland. It aims to offer hope, healing, and recovery to clients suffering from addictions through integrated and caring services. In addition to two residential facilities, the organisation provides a Continuing Care Programme to clients who have completed treatment to assist with their recovery as well as a community-based programme. Its Family Support Programme offers counselling to families whose loved ones are struggling with an addiction. In 2023, the Tabor Group published its annual report for 2022.¹ This article highlights services provided by the Tabor Group to individuals with a substance use addiction in 2022.