Galway Advertiser 1979/1979_03_29/GA_29031979_E1_007.pdf 

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MILKS
GALWAY FOLK CLUB
OPENING NIGHT

DRUG ABUSE Dear Sir, Last week's report "Drugs Openly Abused In City" made interesting reading but I feel that some of the facts warrant further com ment, because as they stand they are potentially mis leading and are likely to generate a certain amount of undue emotion. Firstly, while it is perfectly correct to refer to both cannabis and heroin as illegal drugs, that is where the similarity between them ends. Ms. O'Connor's article may have given the impression that they are similar not only from the legal point of view but also from their pharmacological and clinical effects, some thing which is certainly not the case. Secondly, the claim that over 40% of U.C.G. students have had contact with drugs (presumably cannabis) seems unusually high, and may be more of an inspired guess than an accurate figure. True, cannabis use is higher than normal among students as a group but past surveys generally agree on an average of 33% "ever used" with a much smaller percentage classified as regular smokers. Thirdly, escalation (or graduation) from soft (can nabis) to hard (heroin) drugs if it occurs, is unrelated to the inherent pharmacological properties of cannabis, but rather to sociological factors sur rounding an association with the "illicit d r u g scene." It is as incorrect to assume that all cannabis users move to heroin as it would be to say that all heroin addicts started on tea, or that all beer drinkers end up on methylated spirits. Finally on the subject of life expentancy, heroin addicts have a mortality rate between 20 and 28 times higher than normal with about 80% dying before they are 30. One alarming finding of a recent investig ation was that 53% of addicts died from bar biturate poisoning and in 60% of the cases the b a r b i t u r a t e s had b e e n obtained illicitly. Together with the recent tragedy in a Dublin suburb, this serves to highlight the all too real danger of barbiturates, and

FRANK IE GAVIN JACKIE DALY
AT P. 1. FLAHERTY'S (LK. SALTHILL) THURSDAY, 5th APRIL 9 p.m. Admission 70p

to quote the beautiful paradox in last week's report: " I t will take some thing like an overdose to make people sit up and react to the situation." Perhaps for too long now the media has considered the only really dangerous drugs to be those that are illegal. Alcohol, caffeine and nicotine are rarely thought of as drugs, and barbiturates and tranquillizers may be even thought of as relatively harmless. Surely it is now time to redress the balance and to see the problem of cannabis, LSD etc. in the wider context of the non medical use of drugs. Yours faithfully, (Dr.) Alun Morinan, Dept. of Pharmacology, U.C.G.

STUDENT BASHING Dear Sir, Drug abuse is a serious matter: so serious, that any journalistic pronunciations on its prevalence ought to be based on impeccable re search. For this reason I was appaled at the sloppy handling of the whole question in the Galway Advertiser's article headed "Drugs Openly Abused In City." While it was admitted that no one really knows the extent of drug abuse in the city, a student was quoted as saying "that over 40% of college students have had contact with drugs." Are my friends and myself to be libelled by the ambiguous remarks of an anonymous buffoon? Has this Public House Professor any em pirical basis for his arbit rarily chosen estimate of 40%? Since this ridiculous assertion is placed alongside a sober police statement, the p u b l i c are being asked to treat it with similar respect. I would suggest, Sir, that there is enough studentbashing without your lend ing credence to wild re marks about drugs in this

manner. In the remarkable para graphs that followed we were dished up pseudophilosophical souffles from (1) a Galway resident who wished to remain anony mous; (2) a student in a well-known pub; (3) a heroin addict in a quiet city restaurant; (4) a Dublin visitor who often stays in Galway; (5) a Catholic doctor and (6) Bob Dylan. The assorted self-diag nostic outpourings of this hair-brained bunch lent false support to an earlier statement that "the use of drugs among young people is becoming commonplace and open in Galway." An article full of anony mous opinions and no facts is fine fodder for scare mongers but does not help the rest of us to measure the entent of what might or might not be a serious problem in our community. Paul Moore, Auditor, Law Society U . G G .

REVISION O F CONSTITUENCIES Dear Sir, It now seems almost certain that prior to the local elections in June all the Galway constituencies will have been revised with the result that all the different areas in the city could have their own representatives on the Corporation. And in my opinion it is only right and proper that such should be the case for every area to have its own representatives and not as the situation stands at the moment when a Corporation member could be giving more attention to an area other than that which helped to elect him. At least the revision could be a great chance for an area like Claddagh that in spite of all our efforts remains so neglected. Some people might be of the opinion that I am using the word neglected hap hazardly but that is not so because as I have stated so often already we have in the Claddagh paths that are a

danger to life and limb especially where old people are concerned who have to walk on the road to try and avoid them as they are in such bad condition. Not forgetting the children whose knees are lacerated from the effects of playing on these horrible paths. Even Mr. Leydon the Borough Engineer admitted that they are all that has been said about them. There are also in the Claddagh houses, still under Corporation control, that have not been painted for a number of years and

the same could be said where house repairs are concerned. At this stage I must sound a note of warning to those in authority where the Clad dagh beach is concerned. Erosion is setting in there at such a rate that if something is not done about it soon we could have a situation where we now have a park could once again become a swamp and maybe worse could follow. Yours sincerely, P. COOKE, Upper Fairhill Road, Claddagh.

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