THERE IS A “tsunami” of crack cocaine addiction in the Tallaght and Whitechurch areas of Dublin, with women making up one-third of those seeking help for the drug, according to a new report. 

The report by Tallaght’s Drugs and Alcohol Task Force has said that the number of people being treated for addiction issues by task force projects has doubled in the last ten years. 

Despite this, the report’s authors say they believe they are only reaching 25% of the true need due to an increase in the need for addiction services. 

The report says its services are being spread even thinner over the past decade due to an overall decrease in funding from €1.3 million in 2010 to €1.2 million today. 

It is caling for calling for an additional €1 million in government funding to take on more frontline staff to address the crack issue, create more residential addiction, develop more direct interventions for vulnerable young people and to fund more gardai on the ground.

It says that an increase in garda patrols is required due to what it estimates as a 75% increase in drug related crime since 2018, including the intimidation of women by dealers. 

Tallaght has the “joint lowest number of gardai per head of population in Dublin”, according to the report’s authors. 

The report also details what it terms as the “onset of crack cocaine in the last three years” which has left its services “at breaking point”. 

“Crack cocaine causes chaos and destruction in the life of the person trapped in addiction and hugely affects their children, their wider family and community. A growing number of women have become trapped in a life of addiction and intimidation and find it very difficult to escape the cycle of trauma and addiction without our help,” TDATF co-ordinator Grace Hill has said. 

The report found that, in 2021, the number of people using TDATF services because of crack cocaine addiction was among the highest in the country and about about one third of those were women.

The report details that addiction to crack cocaine is complex and difficult to overcome, with many people using more than one drug at a time meaning additional support is required.