Following a request from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to put forward proposals in relation to tackling the growing problem of cocaine misuse in Ireland, the National Drugs Strategy Team established a Cocaine Sub-Group to recommend pilot interventions aimed at particular types of cocaine users.

Tallaght was chosen by the Sub-Group to be the subject of a community-based pilot project working with problematic intranasal cocaine users. The Tallaght project involved a partnership approach comprising two established community projects in the Tallaght area, namely St. Dominic’s Community Response Project and Killinarden’s Community Addiction Response Programme (CARP). Both projects were active in the delivery of drug-related services in the area since 1995.

The target group in this pilot were nasal cocaine-only users who had developed problematic levels of usage from an initial level of mild usage described as “snorting usually at weekends”.