Home > Heroin use in a Dun Laoghaire Borough area 1983-84.

Dean, Geoffrey and Power, B (1984) Heroin use in a Dun Laoghaire Borough area 1983-84. Dublin: Medico-Social Research Board.

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This report presents the main results of a study of heroin use in an area of Dun Laoghaire County Borough. The study set out to quantify the extent of heroin use, and to compile a user profile. Another objective of the study was to provide a basis for comparing heroin abuse in the borough with that in inner city Dublin, and also for abuse comparisons between different residential areas within the borough.

Interviews were conducted with 36 people resident on 1 May 1984 in two electoral wards in Dun Laoghaire Borough who were believed by the investigating panel to have used cocaine or heroin at any time between 1 May 1983 and 1 May 1984. The 28 research found heroin use was mainly concentrated in the 15- to 24-year-old age group, with twice as many male as female users. Most users came from disadvantaged backgrounds, with only one in five in paid employment at the time of the research. The drug history of respondents was also explored, and it was found that three-fifths had presented themselves for medical treatment at some time.

The authors stated that the most disturbing discovery was the extraordinarily high incidence of heroin use among young people living in local authority flats compared with that among young people living elsewhere in the area.


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