Following the Government’s announcement that proposals for Ireland’s first medically supervised injection room for intravenous drug users will be examined, Niamh Mullen reports that heroin users are often treated like a sub-species, with even some doctors not always understanding their needs.

Strong anti-drug sentiment among the general public will make medically supervised injecting centres (MSICs) for heroin users a hard sell, according to a leading GP specialising in alcohol and substance abuse.

Dr Garrett McGovern told Irish Medical Times that garnering public acceptance of the Government proposal would be a major challenge. “That is the big one. It will be blamed for every ill that happens in the inner city. It will be blamed for retail going down. A lot of people are not going to be interested in the evidence,” he suggested..........