REPORT LAYS OUT A POLICING PLAN

THE official report seen by the MoS goes into great detail about the lessons learned on the Garda trip to Amsterdam. One of the key areas concerns the age of drug users.

The report says: ‘The success of this approach to tackling heroin addiction is apparent, as the average age of a heroin user in Amsterdam is now between 40 and 70 years old.

‘Heroin use is almost unknown in the younger generation although the use of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy are still common. Injection rooms exist in a supervised and non-supervised manner. Their success is partly down to the distributed number [of injection centres] and that they are one part of a broader rehab approach.’

The confidential report also recommended:

The creation of partnerships between health professionasls, social protection, social workers, drug rehab professionals, local authorities and gardaí.

The amending of public order acts to help gardaí to police the injection centre in conjunction with the local district court.

The centre be designated a ‘licenced premises’ to allow ‘regulation and maintenance of peace in the vicinity’.

The use of exclusion orders to ensure drug users convicted of public order offences can be kept away.

Clarification that the injection centre would be considered a public place under the Public Order Acts, granting gardaí significant powers within the premises.