Availability of cocaine leading to more hospitalisations - Health Research Board

Eva Osborne

The Health Research Board has said the availability of cocaine has led to an increase in hospitalisations and overdoses.

There are warnings of the potential for further increases in use and harm after new research showed the number of cocaine seizures grew from 566 in 2003 to more than 4,000 in 2023.

The Health Research Board lists a range of indicators that point to a worsening problem.

Speaking to Newstalk, Cormac O'Keeffe from the Irish Examiner said prices of cocaine have remained the same.

"Prices have not gone up and that is also in the context that seizures have gone up. So seizures have gone up, but it's more available, at a higher purity," he said.

"It just shows the scale of the problem and the sheer amount of cocaine that's coming across the Atlantic."

Addiction Specialist Dr Garrett McGovern outlined the consequences of drug use.

"It was great that they actually did the statistics for hospital admissions and stuff like that because what we know from a lot of drugs we treat, including alcohol, they're far more likely to end up with a complication of their drug or alcohol use in a hospital than they are coming to us to treat their addiction. That's the sad part of it," he said.