Debate contribution: Drug-related Deaths: East Antrim

Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on 27 May 2025.

MLA

Miss Deirdre Hargey

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

27 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Drug-related Deaths: East Antrim

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4972700

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Danny, for raising the important issue of drug-related deaths in the East Antrim area and for securing the Adjournment debate on what is an important and concerning topic. We have seen the recent statistics from NISRA that show that there has been almost a doubling of deaths over the past 10 years. Of course, we are all acutely aware of it, as has been stated today and as we see in the many news articles that appear whenever deaths arise, particularly at times when a few deaths happen in a short period. We are also aware, however, that the stories quickly slip off the front pages of our papers or our online technology, and it is the families who are left to pick up the pieces. We have heard that acutely in relation to the East Antrim area, where seven lives have been lost to seven families over the past year. Drug-related deaths is an ongoing issue that does not impact on just East Antrim but across all our constituencies and these islands. We know that a siloed approach to the issue will not change outcomes or statistics. We need a more focused, cross-departmental approach and more ministerial and departmental working to set the strategic policy and the strategies. We also need to look at the implementation and at what we can do over the next period. We know that Departments' budgets are stretched and that there is a resource issue. We know the impact that 15 years of austerity has had on public spending and budgets, and we know why we are in the crisis that we are in. You cannot look at those things in isolation, and, for that reason, we need to work more collaboratively and find joined-up working solutions, whether those are at the coalface or the grassroots where the Department of Health can work with the Department for Communities, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. We need to look at how we can have those cross-departmental teams at the coalface to meet the families and communities that are in crisis, with a focus on delivering preventions and, importantly, interventions. That work needs to include harm-reduction approaches and, importantly, strengthen early intervention and prevention. We recently saw a review of residential rehabilitation. Our party is one of many that has called for statutory residential services, as we have worked with many families who have felt the impact of this issue, and we call on the Minister to prioritise that. We also call for the full roll-out of multidisciplinary services in our GP surgeries. The work that has been done up to now is having an impact; it is working. The locality planning and approach is bearing fruit, and we would like to see more of that being rolled out. Of course, we also want to see the substance use strategy being fully funded and fully rolled out. We also know the importance of real-time monitoring and early warning systems, particularly when looking at the issue from the point of view of support. We call for the rapid drug testing pilot, for which Queen's University has advocated, to be funded. When you work in the community and engage with the many groups that have been mentioned today that work in this field, you see how those early alert systems, and the public messaging that follows, are crucial and could, I believe, save lives. I again call for the rapid drug testing pilot to be funded and, more importantly, rolled out. As many Members who spoke in the debate have said, this issue is not just for the Health Minister, who has turned up to the Chamber this evening, but for many other Ministers in the Executive. There needs to be a collaborative, cross-Executive approach that includes our criminal justice system and the Justice Minister working collaboratively with Health. I sit on the Justice Committee, and our Health and Justice Committees have met on those issues and their impacts on the justice and health systems. It is not just about drugs and substance use; it is about mental health, trauma and support. Recent police statistics showed that, in a 12-month period, over 35,000 calls related to people in crisis. When you look into those figures, you see the correlation with addiction and substance misuse. We cannot emphasise enough the importance of taking a collaborative, joined-up approach to dealing with these issues. We also need a robust criminal justice response to criminal gangs, drug traffickers and paramilitaries. In the past month, there have been raids, and a significant quantity of drugs has been removed from our streets. There is an acute need for a robust criminal justice response along with a health-led response. Recent information from a Mid and East Antrim PCSP meeting referred to the case of a young person who was spending up to £50 a day in order to sustain their use of the drug spice, which has a higher potency than normal cannabis. If a young person who is living in that constituency is doing that, I am sure that their story could be replicated across all our constituencies. It is a real issue: that is what is happening in our communities. Education plays a crucial role for our children and young people, particularly when it comes to the increasing use of vapes in school and the use of other illicit drugs through those vaping instruments. We need the education system to work alongside our family and community supports, including our family support hubs. Gordon touched on breaking down the stigma. It is a big conversation that we need to have at the heart of our communities. We need to take the conversations to the grassroots in our communities and start to break down the stigma. The community that I live in, the Market area in south Belfast, started that 15 months ago by working with Queen's University's Communities and Place. That took a long time for families, particularly those who have lost loved ones through addiction and substance misuse or through suicide, who are impacted on by trauma —

— and mental health issues. Feeling that the community is working with you on these things is critical for people. I commend the Member who secured the Adjournment debate and call for a collaborative, cross-departmental approach.

1,056 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:37 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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