Crack cocaine in the Dublin region - Health Research Board

A number of service providers said that they were aware that there may be aproportion of younger, non-opiate-using crack cocaine users who binge on crackcocaine but do not engage with treatment services, primarily because they do notview their use as problematic and/or do not wish to be associated with the establishedcentres that have traditionally treated heroin addiction:But we know that we have a problem engaging with young people or young people have aproblem engaging with us because they are not at that stage, you know they are not at thatstage of seeing it as a problem or whatever so...Finglas, drug-treatment service (October 2007)There’s certainly a group of people doing crack that are not on methadone right, but weonly have rumours. We don’t have any definite evidence that this is the case, and they’re allreasonably young. You know late-teens, early-twenties at the most.Tallaght, drug-treatment service (October 2007)4.5 Education levels among crack usersEvidence of education levels among crack users was available from the NDTRS.Education levels in this group were low, with only three new cases having completedtheir Leaving Certificate or having attained a higher qualification (Table 4.3).Table 4.3Number of new cases who lived in Dublin and reported crack cocaine as a problemdrug, by highest level of education completed, as reported to the NDTRS, 2004 to2006Highest level of education completed Number %Never went to school 1 2.9Primary level incomplete 1 2.9Primary level 8 22.9Junior Certificate 14 40.0Leaving Certificate 2 5.7Third level 1 2.9Not known 8 22.9Total 35 100.04.6 Accommodation status of crack usersAs noted above, the proportion of homeless people (in 2003) who reported having usedcrack at some point in their life was reasonably high (Lawless and Corr 2005). Datafrom the NDTRS indicate that over one-third of new cases in the period 2004 to 2006were living in unstable accommodation (Table 4.4).56 Crack cocaine in the Dublin region: an evidence base for a crack cocaine strategy