Ireland is at the beginning of a 10- year cocaine epidemic which will lead to "dozens and dozens" of deaths each year, one of the country's most prominent A&E consultants has warned.
Dr Chris Luke, a consultant at Cork University Hospital, said there will be a half-dozen deaths from heart attacks brought on by cocaine overdoses in Cork city alone this year, and more than 20 deaths across the country.
Dr Luke said yesterday the experience of previous cocaine epidemics, including one in Dún Laoghaire in the 1970s, showed that it takes as long as five years for usage to drop when the public realise the dangers involved.
"My view is that drug epidemics have natural lifespans. You have a critical mass of deaths and tragedies and then you have a psychological ripple effect and between the loss of human beings through death and disease you get a folk memory which lasts until the next generation come along," he said.
Dr Luke also believes a number of high-profile deaths from cocaine abuse recently will do more to educate young people than any anti-drugs programme.
"Education happens when the penny drops," he explained. "There is a spiralling interest in drug taking among children and teenagers which also perfectly fits the same curve of the distribution of leaflets and drug talks. I do worry that all you are doing is exposing them to a menu that they might dabble in. I have a suspicion and a healthy scepticism about so-called education."
He said education resources should be put into training the emergency services to deal with cocaine overdoses which can kill people within 30 minutes.
"We need a bit of urgent targeted training for paramedics, police and frontline people so that they understand and are not as naive as the populace at large about the effects of cocaine.
"If they are faced with an agitated young person from a party, they really must understand that the patient can turn from being perhaps a gibbering hysterical wreck to being in cardiac arrest and coma via seizure within 10 to 20 minutes," he said.
The number of cocaine-related deaths will not be made known until next year when the drug-related death index, from the Health Research Board, is published.
However, Dr Briony Sweeney, a specialist in addiction psy- chiatry at the Drug Treatment Centre Board and at the Mater hospital, said he treats up to six patients a week for the effects of cocaine abuse, which include strokes, but the numbers being treated are the "tip of the iceberg". "There is an epidemic afoot and it doesn't seem to be letting up," he said.
"The number of deaths from ecstasy is small relative to its use, but the deaths from cocaine are much higher. The public need to know that cocaine is a very dangerous drug."
The Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Pat Carey, extended his sympathies to the French family yesterday and referred to a statement made by the family of Kevin Doyle, the Waterford man who died earlier this week after taking drugs at a house party, and said he hoped people would heed their request to "say no to drugs".
Fine Gael TD Michael Ring has called on gardaí to tackle cocaine dealing head-on and stamp out growing use of the drug by the middle classes.
