Dungarvan publicans take the (drugs) initiative

Publicans in Dungarvan have funded the printing of 10,000 beer mats which offer advice to heroin and other drugs users on where they can go for help. The Dungarvan VFI initiative, has resulted from the growth in use of heroin in the County Waterford town and sees beer mats going out to nearly 50 pubs in the area.

The campaign also aims to increase knowledge and awareness of drug abuse among pub staff and follows on from a seminar held by the VFI brand in Dungarvan’s Park Hotel last October on public order problems caused by people who’d had too much to drink

The beer mats provide information on drugs on one side and details of local community drugs worker Tracy Nugent from the Waterford Community Drugs Initiative on the other, explained Sergeant Andrew Geary, Garda Liaison Officer for the area.