Sandymount man in charge of a social project trying to improve drug policy and treatment

Ruaidhri McAuliffe, whose family ran the chemist in Sandymount village for generations, is coordinator of an organization called UISCE, the only social project of its kind in the country.
Formed from a Drugs Task Force initiative and funded by the Health Service Executive, UISCE stands for Improved Services, Communication and Education and acts as a voice for drug users, ex-users and professional staff in the development of drug policy and treatment response.

The personnel of UISCE consists of Ruaidhri, pictured right, and just one part-time development worker, yet their much-in-demand service covers drug users in the north inner city, where the number receiving methadone treatment for addiction is currently estimated to be over 1,000 people.

Just two years into his tenure at UISCE, he talks to NewsFour about the wide-ranging nature of his work, his views on drug policy in Ireland and about the difficulties of operating a service in one of the most maligned and misunderstood regions of the capital.

Could you tell me exactly what your role in UISCE incorporates?
What we do in UISCE is represent the interests of the drug user and try to meet their concerns. We look at areas like treatment and rehabilitation, research, supply and control, plus there is a whole other arena we operate in, where we would be liaising with community groups like the local policing forum and the local methadone clinic in Amiens Street, which is the same kind of clinic which operates in Ringsend, but on a much bigger scale.

We were a voice in the wilderness in some ways in the past, until we got the support of families of drug users behind us. UISCE can effect change and we have influenced official drug policy in the past. Part of what we do is informing people about their rights, particularly in working class areas.

People from the north inner city are already coming from a disadvantaged background. If they are drug users on top of that, it just compounds the prejudice, so it very important that drug users have a voice, which is what we in UISCE try to give them.

Would you say heroin is still the most prevalent drug in the north inner city?
Heroin is still quite prevalent. In terms of usage though, alcohol has become a big issue for a lot of users. They become stabilised on methadone and might give up heroin altogether, but a lot of people then develop a dependency on drink, which is a potent mix with methadone.

The drawback for people who might be mixing the two is that alcohol flushes the methadone out of the body a lot quicker than when you are sober. It is a significant problem and clinics would be very wary of giving methadone to people who are drunk because there is a huge chance of overdosing.

What about cocaine use? There has been a lot of talk lately about the increase of the drug through all sections of society
It is a problem for some because I am used to dealing with users who have a history of injecting, which is pretty risky. I would be concerned about people injecting cocaine because one of the effects of cocaine is you tend to want a lot more of it than say, heroin and injecting cocaine can leave you more prone to viruses and does a lot more damage to the veins than just inhaling the drug. There is a lot of casual cocaine use about though; there is no doubt about that.

Methadone is seen as the solution to heroin addiction, yet many would argue it is far from the perfect answer, would you agree?
Yes. You are looking at a situation where you bring people in for treatment for heroin and you give them methadone. Sometimes though, users find methadone isn’t enough and they need valium for their anxiety and pills to help them sleep, and you have to help them because these are legitimate concerns. What I see sometimes is people topping up their methadone with prescription drugs, with alcohol, with hash, with anything else really. That’s where methadone gets criticized, because it is seen as not strong enough on its own.

So what do you think is the solution?
Heroin should be prescribed to people who cannot handle methadone on its own without having to top up with a cocktail of licit and illicit drugs. I think people would be doing a lot less damage to themselves if they were just doing heroin on its own. I am an advocate of harm reduction for drug users. Any policy change that will result in less harm to people and less death has to be welcomed. Controlled prescribing of heroin has to be considered on those grounds.

What other changes would you like to see in drugs policy and drug treatment?
One particular area where I would like to see change is in drug treatment among the homeless. There are huge waiting lists for methadone treatment for people on the streets and living in shelters. They are a particularly vulnerable group of people.

There is a proposal at the moment, and I would be fully in favour of it, to provide an on-site sterile, injecting facility under medical supervision. If the homeless had somewhere to go and take their drugs in a clean, supervised environment, instead of going down some back alley and injecting God knows what, I think that would be very beneficial.

What about the de-criminalisation of drugs?
Drugs shouldn’t have anything to do with the criminal justice system. Whether someone takes drugs or not is up to the individual. It is their choice; a moral choice and I do believe it is a victimless crime. Taken in isolation, what people inject or smoke should not be of concern to anybody else.

I can understand people objecting to drug-taking, and that is their opinion, but I don’t think people should be prosecuted for it. I mean, I object to certain things like blood sports for instance, but I don’t want someone criminalised for it.