Debunking the myth that cocaine use is ubiquitous in Ireland should be first step in future drug policy, writes Eilis O'Hanlon.

Scrooge's advice to the poor at Christmas was that they should die, in order to decrease the surplus population.

What follows isn't a very festive thought either, but I must admit that when I heard Dr Chris Luke, a leading consultant in emergency medicine, say on Six One News last week that 500 people would die in the next decade as a result of cocaine use, my first reaction was a bit like Ebenezer's: Why don't they just get on with it then and decrease the surplus population of drug users? What am I supposed to do about it, after all? What is anybody supposed to do about it?

independent.ie