This article is from page 11 of the 2013-10-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
A JUDGE has issued a stark warning that more lives will be lost to addiction if drug treatment services in Ireland continue to be under resourced.
Judge Gerard Keys was commenting following the death of Ennis man James Sherlock Jnr earlier this year.
The 24-year-old wheelchair-bound amputee was found unconscious by his brother near the green of the eighth hole of Ennis Golf Club in August. It is thought Mr Sherlock had spent a period of time squatting in the area.
Mr Sherlock, formerly of Childers Road, Ennis, was a heroin addict who lost both his legs as a result of complications arising from his addiction.
He lived rough for a while in an abandoned squat in Ennis and was awaiting sentence for setting fire to the Lakes Nursing Home in Killaloe on August 20, 2010. Judge Keys had adjourned sentencing for the purpose of ascertaining what help Mr Sherlock could get to deal with his drug addiction and what accommodation could be found for him.
“It is with a great degree of sadness that I read in the newspapers the circumstances of the death of James Sherlock,” Judge Keys said at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday.
“He was a troubled young man with huge problems and with little or no adequately-resourced facilities to assist him in dealing with his drug addiction and the medical complications which arose there from. In this court I said this man cannot be abandoned,” added Judge Keys.
He continued, “I am now compelled to say that until the problem of drug addiction in this country is tackled and a sufficient number of properly resourced facilities put in place by the State, there will be more deaths of this kind and our prison population will increase.
“I passionately believe that if a sufficient number of properly-resourced facilities for drug addiction were established it would radically reduce crime levels, reduce our prison population and save lives.”
He conveyed his sympathies to the Sherlock family.
At James Sherlock Jnr’s funeral in Ennis last August, parish priest Fr Tom O’Gorman also spoke of the dangers of drug addiction.
“Drugs led him [Jimmy] down the wrong path and the shackles that they hold on people can lead to death,” Fr O’Gorman told mourners.