Children as young as 13 are taking cocaine, a support service for teenagers engaged in drug misuse has warned.
Speaking about the rising cocaine epidemic across Ireland, Billy O’Doherty of the Community Substance Misuse Team (CSMT), a day service for under 18’s covering Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary, revealed how children are sourcing drugs on social media platforms.
“CSMT is experiencing a wave of younger adolescents, some as young as 13, engaging with cocaine use,” said Mr. O’Doherty.
He claims they are acquiring the substances “on platforms such as Snapchat, where dealers are selling various types of illicit substances.”
A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive (HSE) confirmed cocaine use is rising year-on-year. In the Mid-West specifically, there has been a sustained increase in people seeking treatment for cocaine, mirroring national patterns.
Community and residential services across the region are now working with cocaine users. Through the Mid-West Regional Drug and Alcohol Forum, the HSE funds a dedicated Cocaine Harm Reduction Initiative delivered by Bushypark Treatment Centre.
This community based programme supports adults through harm reduction and abstinence. In the first half of 2025, 297 clients availed of the service. This is 90 more clients than in the same period in 2024.
Age patterns in drug use are shifting. While there is a cohort of under 18’s seeking help, the HSE notes the opioid-using population is ageing. Cocaine is now the most common drug among those aged 25 to 44, while opioid use dominates in older groups.
Among adolescents, frontline workers are witnessing worrying trends. Mr. O’Doherty says cocaine use has increased among both male and female adolescents. The service typically sees newly referred young people within a week, but access to residential treatment is far more limited.
There are just twelve adolescent treatment beds in the Mid-West, leading to wait times of up to ten weeks for admission. Nationally, the shortage is even more worrying.
HSE data from February 2021 showed over 3,500 people waiting for detox or rehab beds, with more than 2,200 waiting at least nine months. Reduced capacity during Covid-19 lockdowns contributed to this backlog.
Mr. O’Doherty says rising cocaine use has pushed waiting lists up by over 50 percent. CSMT can support up to sixty young people weekly, sometimes more where need is greater. While waiting for residential placement, youths receive outreach, counselling, weekly key-worker sessions, family support and auricular acupuncture aimed at stabilisation and harm reduction.
Although CSMT reports it is currently adequately staffed, additional family support workers would be required if demand grows further, as national trends would suggest.
According to the Health Research Board’s (HRB) Drug Treatment Demand in Ireland 2024 report, published in May 2025, cocaine accounted for 40 percent of all drug treatment cases last year, excluding alcohol. This represents a 7 percent increase from 2023 and reflects a longer-term upward trend.
Between 2017 and 2023, cases where cocaine was the main problem drug increased by 228 percent, with a particularly sharp rise among women, a group who are historically underrepresented in cocaine treatment statistics.
Behind these figures are complex social and psychological factors, particularly among young people. Kelly Ballantine, a psychotherapist with Jigsaw in Limerick, says substance misuse among young clients often links back to emotional distress and family circumstances.
“It seems to me that substance abuse often provides a way of coping with emotional pain,” she says. Many of the young people she works with come from complex family environments with limited parental or family support. Difficulties maintaining relationships and healthy boundaries are common.
Ms. Ballantine believes drug culture has become increasingly normalised. Young clients frequently mention a wide variety of substances. She notes that many do not present to Jigsaw until they are already in recovery, possibly due to fears around the legality of drug use.
She continued, saying that there “appears to be a normalisation of drug culture within society, with access to many different types of drugs that young people name as using. I am not familiar with the names of all of them. I believe some of these are bought on the internet.”
“My impression is that drug use may well have increased within society at large, particularly amongst young people,” she added.