Irish Prisons Record 40,000 Positive Drug Tests

DUBLIN, Ireland — Irish Prison Service officials recorded more than 36,000 positive drug tests among inmates during the last three years, according to official reports.

The combined number of positive tests recorded in 2005, 2006 and the first nine months of 2007 was 36,365. With approximately 10,000 offenders incarcerated 14 detention facilities annually, the average prison population is 3,199 inmates.

The new data show little reduction in inmates’ use of illicit drugs following the government’s introduction of a drug-free prison policy in 2004.

Prison officials administered more than 25,000 drug tests in the first nine months of 2007. Approximately 36 percent of tests returned positive results for traces of banned substances, including cocaine, opiates, cannabis, amphetamines, benzodiazepines and alcohol.

In 2006, about 37 percent of the more than 25,000 drug tests returned positive results. Although, 47 percent of tests were positive in 2005, officials administered approximately 12,000 more drug tests than in 2006 or 2007.