REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE MULHUDDART AND CORDUFF COMMUNITY DRUG TEAM
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE MULHUDDART AND CORDUFF COMMUNITY DRUG TEAM, PARSLICKSTOWN HOUSE
Dia dhíbh a chairde.
It is good to be here with you on an important day for the community drug team that has served the people of this area for the past six years – the day on which we officially launch the Mulhuddart and Corduff Community Drugs Team project. My thanks to Marie McKay for inviting me to share this day with you all. It gives me a chance to acknowledge and thank you on my own behalf and on behalf of all those lives that have been changed for the better because of what you do here in this community and for this community to overcome the scourge of drugs and the human misery they inevitably bring.
When you came together in those early days, it was because so many young people had fallen into the drug trap. They and their families and this community paid the price for addiction as lives shut down, relationships became twisted and the future was robbed of hope. Drug abuse messes up the lives of a lot of people and no matter how well we think we’ve educated our children about the danger of drugs, none of us can ever be certain that our family will escape. The families caught up in it know how it poisons for they have seen their children’s potential go to waste, they have had to deal with deaths from overdose, they have had to watch as trust and love have been eaten away, they have had to deal with criminality and homelessness, mental illness and marginalisation. They have seen children born into this cycle of misery and children die without escaping it. Drugs devour the human spirit and the personality but they don’t have to always win.
It took a lot of courage for that first group to come together and decide to take on this vicious enemy. All they had initially was their determination and a strong community spirit. They had the insight to understand that since drug addiction affects not only the addict, but also parents, partners, children, siblings, neighbours and friends – so too must the support and help include all those different groups. Great credit is due to the team working here for the range of friendly and non-judgemental services you provide through streetwork, house calls, clinics, health promotion evenings, social activities and support groups. In the few months from August to November last more than 400 attended the Community Drugs Team indicating that what you do here really does matter, really does make a difference in the lives of many people. And your outreach programme has proven to be a great success in your effort to reach those who might fall through the net – contacting more than 700 people so far. Well done and a particular well done and thank-you to the addicts who have sought help here for without their decision to try and turn their lives around, without their determination and without their ultimate success even after many failures, this project like so many others would have closed its doors long ago.
If indignation and impatience could stop the problems of drug abuse they would have been stopped long ago but righteous though they may be, they cannot replace the need for effective strategies that deal with the whole web of problems behind drug abuse.
The National Drugs Strategy provides a framework for developing a more holistic, responsive service for drug users by bringing together into a single framework all those involved in drug misuse policy in this country. The Strategy contains over 100 separate actions to be carried out by a range of Government Departments and agencies and fall under the four pillars of supply reduction, prevention, treatment and research. But policy frameworks and strategies on their own do not deliver services. You are the hands and heart of that work and you bring a road map to a better future where other can only see chaos. As a society we are grateful to those who work for change and who commit to change, because every life that is drug free is good news for the individual, the family, the community and the country. That is why it is important that every success – big and small - is celebrated.
Today is one of those success days and I am very glad to be here to share it with you. I congratulate everyone involved with the success story that is the Mulhuddart and Corduff Community Drug Team. There are many people who have helped in that success story, from the State and voluntary sectors and in particular from the local communities of Mulhuddart and Corduff. You can take great pride in what you have achieved over the past six years and you can face tomorrow with the reassurance and confidence you have earned through all that experience. You know now that you can cope and that change can be made to happen. Keep on doing it. I now formally launch the Mulhuddart and Corduff Drug Team and wish it and all who use its services every success.
Comhghairdeas libh go léir arís inniu.
Go n-éirí go geal libh. Go raibh maith agaibh