Ireland - War on drugs eyes Bebo and Facebook

[Lunar Loops]

This from The Irish Examiner:

War on drugs eyes Bebo and Facebook

By Eoin English

THE Government is to use social websites such as Bebo and Facebook in the next phase of its war on drugs.

Drugs Minister Pat Carey confirmed an information campaign targeting young people will be rolled out shortly. The initiative will use “youth-friendly” media to spread the message.

Mr Carey, who was in Cork to officially open the Knocknaheeny Youth Link-Point project, made his comments as John Grey, 23, from Ballybeg and Kevin Doyle, 21, from Viewmount in Waterford continued to fight for their lives. They remained in a coma last night after taking drugs, possibly cocaine, at a party on Saturday night.

“This is very alarming,” he said. “What we are trying to get over to the public is that there is a problem out there — I am not ignoring it, the Government is not ignoring it.” Mr Carey said there is no point in pretending that Ireland doesn’t have a drugs problem.

“That’s why I am very anxious to have a focused information campaign which we will be rolling out very shortly through the health promotion unit of the Department of Health. We have to use media that are young people friendly — Bebo and Facebook — as well as localised initiatives.”

The Government’s leading drugs adviser yesterday said the emergencies in Waterford city highlighted the danger of taking several drugs.

Dr Des Corrigan said initial reports suggested that either high-purity cocaine or cocaine mixed with alcohol may have caused the severe reactions at the house party in Ballybeg.

“I think it’s more consistent with either high-dose cocaine or cocaine plus alcohol. It seems more compatible with that, but you have to expect the unexpected with drugs,” said Dr Corrigan, chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs.

“The initial reports highlight the increasing element of polydrug use or people using combinations of drugs, where sometimes it is almost impossible to know how the individual drugs will react with one another,” he said.

[tinytom]

is this just a response from Pat in releation to the recent comas at the house party?

seems to me that it just so no one will think he is not doing anything?

[Heretic.Ape.]

I'll point out the obligatory if drugs were legal you would not "have to expect the unexpected with drugs"
Sounds like a waste of money like most government programs to target the youth.

[Bajeda]

I thought from the title that LE was going to start prowling pro-drug groups and go to rave oriented listed events and the like to collect info on people or something.

This isn't great news, but its better than I was expecting (I just know they are going to start collecting info off social networks at some point if able to).

[Nature Boy]

So Bebo and Facebook are gonna contain a couple of pop-up ads for anti-drug websites. Big deal, no-one will pay attention. Why notify people about the dangers of drugs just because of a political agenda? There are plenty of diseases, illnesses and conditions that people ought to look out for more urgently that are completely non-drug related. They should be using resources to educate people about them rather than spinning the truth in order to get people to support a failed war on drugs.

[Coconut]

As if bebo's website wasn't annoying enough, now I'll have propaganda thrown in my face when I visit it.

"Youth-friendly" they say... I wonder, will this involve the usual attempts at using particular "youth" slang which government bureaucrats hardly understand? What's next? Government ads laced with "LOL", "NOOB" and "OMG"?

Bebo ad space would be better spent trying to get people to help the homeless in Ireland's cities, especially at this time of year.

[Lunar Loops]

Anyone out there had a look at this yet? From just a cursory look (very cursory) it does not look great. Ketamine is down as an hallucinogen and not a Dissociative. It lists "evidence of serious liver damage" as a long term effect of ecstasy, although there is no strong evidence for this. Cannabis is listed as a sedative and included in the information is the following table:

How Long it stays in your System
Light Smoker = Approximately 1-3 Days
Moderate Smoker = Approximately 3-5 Days
Heavy Smoker = Approximately 10 Days
Chronical Smoker = Approximately 3 Weeks

(also no mention of medicinal use).

This from The Irish Examiner:

More than 5,000 contact drug information website

By Cormac O’Keeffe

MORE than 5,000 people contacted a drug information website last week after the Government said it was going to use the internet as part of a new national drug awareness strategy.

The Drug Awareness Programme, which runs a web and text information service, said it was “swamped” with requests for information after drugs strategy minister Pat Carey said he was going to use sites like Bebo to reach out to young people.

The programme’s Michael McDonagh said: “Since he came out with his comments on online resources, we’ve had over 5,000 extra requests for information that we wouldn’t normally see.

“We would normally see a couple of hundred requests a week. Five thousand is absolutely massive. It highlights the fact that people are actively looking for information and help.”

The programme, which is part of Crosscare, the social care agency of the Dublin Diocese, is the longest running drug education project in the country, set up more than 25 years ago. He said the programme was launching an online drug information service on social network site Bebo in January. This was part of an online drug awareness programme that the programme had been asked to develop by the Health Service Executive.

Mr Carey said he envisaged the initiative forming the central part of a national drug awareness campaign he wanted to roll out next year.

“I could see an organisation like Crosscare being able to provide it,” said Mr Carey. “To be honest, I have the sense that those outside main medical providers may be user friendly. Sometimes there’s a level of formality with any engagement with the main health providers, this could put people off. Clearly Crosscare have street cred, they wouldn’t be getting hits like this if they didn’t have.”

Mr Carey said the intended web service would have to be backed up by drug professionals who could offer advice to people, something the awareness programme does on its website.

Mr McDonagh said 700 people spoke to their counsellor or nurse online during the week. He said there was a live help button on their website. Also, close to 3,000 people sought information online from their site. About 900 of these had accessed the site through Bebo. He said more than 1,000 other people texted their service for information.

“We’ve been running online services for six years and we’ve noticed more and more that people don’t want to access information in the traditional medium any more.”

DAP contacts: web: www . dap . ie or text 51900 for drug information.

On the Bebo website, type wwwdap . ie