The Ana Liffey Drug Project (ALDP) marked its 25th anniversary with a conference on 15 March entitled Harm Reduction for Problem Drug Users.  The conference was held in Trinity College Dublin.  Among those speaking at the conference were Dr Tim Rhodes, Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

In 1982 ALDP begin providing a new type of service to drug users and their families in Dublin's inner city.  The values underpinning this service – respect, welcome, participation and right – are as relevant today, even though the organsiation has gone through a great deal of change since it first began to provide an alternative to the dominant abstinence-focused health and social services model. The Trinity conference looked at the development of ALDP over the past 25 years as the harm reduction approach, which originally placed ALDP well outside the mainstream of service provision, has gradually become accepted as a pragmatic and appropriate response to problem drug use in Ireland.

ALDP has recently launched a website providing information on its services (www.aldp.ie/).