St Mary’s University College was the venue for the launch of the West Belfast Community Drugs Panel recently.



The project will look at the ongoing issues around drugs (prescribed and illegal) and the impact that it is having on West Belfast.

Work to tackle polydrug use (and related deaths) through multi-agency cooperation has been ongoing for many years, but the West Belfast Partnership Board has identified the need to have a new and different approach. This will involve gathering evidence and making recommendations to reverse the current trend of increasing drug abuse and drug-related deaths.

The guest speakers at the event were Paul Maskey MP, Coroner Joe McCrisken and Senator Frances Black.