This is a study of changing patterns of drug use in Inchicore, Rialto, and Bluebell, the areas served by the Canal Communities Local Drugs Task Force (CCLDTF), using data collected from September 2007 until the end of 2008, with some follow-up work in 2009. This report grows out of a belief within the Task Force that the ideas and structures that emerged as a response to the ‘drugs’ crisis (almost exclusively defined in terms of opiates) in the 1990s might not be as relevant as they once were to drug use today, given the area’s rapidly developing built environment, changing demographic make-up, and the sense that the younger generation has a different understanding of (and perhaps different appetites for) ‘drugs’.

The analysis is conducted through an ethnographic examination of the lives of drug-users in the Canal Communities area, alongside quantitative data that we collected and some tabulation of secondary statistics. These data are analysed together to give a sense of the issues relating to drug use and treatment in this area, as well as a feel for the experience of both drug use and drugs services.

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