Increase in number of Cork people presenting with addiction issues

People presenting for treatment with problems with both alcohol and drugs are becoming increasingly common, and can be complex to treat, a manager at Coolmine has said.

It comes as a recent Health Research Board (HRB) report showed that 815 Cork people sought alcohol treatment in 2024, the highest the figures have been since pre-pandemic and an increase of 22% when compared to 668 in 2023. 

However, other reports have shown a much higher spike in cocaine usage — including previous HRB figures released in May which showed that 296 people for whom cocaine was the main problem attended treatment last year, a 139% increase from 2017.

Spike

Coolmine’s south-west regional service manager Stephen Cashman said: “Alcohol as a primary substance still accounts for around half of all presentations, but there has been a big spike in cocaine in recent years.

“This is likely due to increased availability of cocaine in rural settings and economic prosperity in recent years.”

Alcohol is considered a drug, so using alcohol and another substance or multiple substances such as cocaine or cannabis is considered polydrug use.

Polydrug use

Mr Cashman said: “We’re seeing a lot of polydrug use, which is a big issue because cases are far more complex, it is a lot easier to work with somebody with just one substance problem.

“Very often, someone will come in and speak with our project workers thinking they have a problem with alcohol, but when doing the assessment it transpires there is a problem with more than one substance.”

The latest HRB report also showed more than half of people who sought treatment in Cork were doing it for a second or subsequent time, and he said: “It’s not uncommon for people to come back a number of times, maybe they just weren’t ready the first time.

“Also, in terms of polydrug use and the complexity, they may have sought treatment for alcohol and it went well for a number of years, then they find they’ve developed an issue with a different substance.”