Welcome

The Ana Liffey Drug Project is a "Low Threshold - Harm Reduction" service. The project works with people, experiencing addiction, to minimise the harm that problematic drug use causes them, their families and the wider community. Do you have a question regarding problematic drug use? Then click the live helper button to the right of this page.

Background

During the early-1980s, drug policy and service provision in Dublin struggled to adapt to what became known as the 'opiate epidemic', the first wave of injecting heroin use in a city previously accustomed to much less risky drug use. This adaptation was not helped by the lack of formal drug policy-making structures or by the assumption that the only legitimate health and social service interventions were those which had abstinence as their goal. It was against this background that Frank Brady S.J. and Mara de Lacy set up the Ana Liffey Drug Project in 1982, a project which introduced the concepts of 'user friendliness', 'low threshold', 'outreach' and 'peer education' work." (Dr Shane Butler, Addiction Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin)