Ana Liffey Drug Project

The Ana Liffey Drug Project is a "Low Threshold - Harm Reduction" service based in Dublin and the Mid West Region. The project works with people, experiencing addiction, to minimise the harm that problematic drug use causes them, their families and the wider community.

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.