Misuse of Drugs

Lead Administration – Ireland

Tackling the misuse of drugs is a challenge for all British-Irish Council administrations. Ireland takes responsibility for advancing co-operation in this area within the Council.

The tenth British-Irish Council Summit meeting took place in Dublin in February 2008 and focused on the challenges associated with the misuse of drugs. Arising from this Summit, it was agreed to include a renewed focus on the families of problem drug users in any future drugs strategies prepared, with a view to providing increased support to those families and to better harness their potential to facilitate life improvements for problem drug users.

In conjunction with the Summit meetings, the regular Ministerial meetings under the Sectoral Group on the Misuse of Drugs continue to provide a most useful forum to exchange information and experiences of best practice.

When Ministers last met in December 2006, they discussed the challenges presented by cocaine use. Ministers agreed that cocaine is a significant issue and requires a high priority in administrations to tackle supply and demand factors and they recognised that there was much they could learn from each others’ experiences.

The next Ministerial meeting is scheduled to take place in London towards the end of 2008 and it will focus on the theme of “Engaging with Communities around Drug Misuse”.

The Sectoral Group on the Misuse of Drugs continues to successfully carry out its full work programme each year, through the co-operation of all BIC administrations. Many of these meetings are attended by professionals and academics in the relevant field and this greatly adds to the discussions.

Among the many topics discussed in detail at Senior Official and Ministerial are:
• targeting the proceeds of drugs trafficking;
• drug awareness campaigns;
• emerging trends in drug misuse and treatment modalities;
• business support for anti-drug strategies;
• rehabilitation, and
• Drugs Strategy development.

The work programme for 2008 is focusing on the following areas:

BIC Summit, Dublin, February 2008: Families and Drugs Misuse - Challenges and Opportunities
Belfast, June 2008: The use of advances in prevention science to guide substance misuse prevention in communities
Jersey, September 2008: Engaging young substance misusers into treatment
Ministerial meeting, London, late 2008: Engaging with Communities around Drug Misuse

Possible topics under consideration for 2009 include:
Drugs Death Indices, and
Prisons and Drug Misuse.


Click here to view the Communiqués issued following the Summit and the Ministerial meetings on the subject of the Misuse of Drugs