Illicit drug use in Ireland & Northern Ireland has been growing since the mid-1970s. The use by young people of psychedelic drugs, including LSD and cannabis, was recognized at that time. Opiate abuse was uncommon until the 1980s, following events in the opium production centres of Afghanistan and Iran. Government task forces and private programmes were formed to tackle increased opiate abuse. Dublin and Ballymena have been centres of increased heroin use and preventative efforts. Studies confirmed significant opiate use in the 1990s, when action to reduce harm caused by drug use became favoured. Programmes focused on controlling the spread of HIV, seen as a greater social threat than drug abuse itself.
Heroin
1970s
Heroin use in Ireland has always centred on Dublin, and to a lesser extent Cork city. Heroin abuse became a major problem in inner-city Dublin in the late 1970s. Earlier, there was no evidence of anything more than isolated use of heroin. In December 1968, the Minister for Health, Seán Flanagan, established a working party to investigate the extent of drug abuse at the time and to advise the government. Their research, reported in 1971, could not find any evidence of significant use of heroin, which they attributed to the difficulty of obtaining supplies at the time. Drug use was limited mostly to cannabis and LSD. These drugs were seen as part of student sub-culture; Hugh Byrne, a TD debating what was to be the 1977 Misuse of Drugs Act, described Trinity College Dublin as "a nest and a hive for the production of LSD [...] leaflets containing the formula of LSD have been freely sold around the campus". He blamed this activity on foreign students in areas of "advanced study".
The main treatment centre for drug users was at Jervis Street Hospital. The National Drug Advisory and treatment Centre was founded there in 1969. In 1973, the Coolmine therapeutic community was founded as a voluntary body to provide a structure for people to "maintain a drug-free existence".
In 1979, there was a dramatic increase in the supply of heroin to Western Europe, usually attributed to the fall of the Shah in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This marked the start of an epidemic in inner-city Dublin.
1980s
The number of heroin users in Dublin continued to grow in the early 1980s. The 1983 Bradshaw Report found that in north central Dublin, 10% of 15- to 24-year-olds had used heroin in the previous year; the figure was 12% for 15- to 19-year-olds, and 13% for females of the same age group. The report also confirmed Dublin as a centre for heroin use, with only three or four heroin users in Cork and Galway.
Following this report, the government created a Special Governmental Task Force on Drug Abuse in April 1983. Their report recommended funding community facilities in deprived areas, but this was at odds with government policy at the time, so the report went unpublished. The government's position was that drug abusers were victims of their own choices, rather than their socio-economic circumstances. The Misuse of Drugs Act 1984 was enacted to provide for tougher punishments than the 1977 Act.
The 1980s also saw the rise of community groups which organised themselves to rid their local areas of drugs. Priests, politicians and even Provisional IRA members took part in residents' associations in areas of Dublin such as Fatima Mansions, the Hardwicke Street flats, St. Teresa's Gardens, and Dolphin House. Groups met to name and shame drug dealers, giving them the choice either to stop dealing or leave the area. Actions broadened to include patrols by residents, checkpoints to search vehicles for drugs, forced evictions, and other vigilante actions. These local groups got together and adopted a constitution in February 1984, naming themselves "Concerned Parents Against Drugs".
The Drug Treatment Centre Board moved to Trinity Court in 1988 following the closure of Jervis Street hospital.
The most significant event of the decade was the arrival of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to Ireland. The first diagnosed case of AIDS was in 1982. Early cases before 1987 were found in homosexual men, this soon spread to intravenous drug users, overtaking cases amongst homosexual men. A survey by the Department of Health in 1986 found that 30% of intravenous drug users were HIV positive.