Cocaine, not heroin, now hard drug of choice in Ireland

[financeguy]

Close to twenty years after Bono wrote 'Running to Stand Still' about heroin addiction in Dublin's northside suburb of Ballymun and in the inner city, and close to thirty years after heroin first flooded into cities like Dublin and Glasgow, coke, not heroin, is now the favoured hard drug of choice here.

But unlike heroin, whose use was largely confined to underprivileged urban ghettos, coke has infiltrated all classes, all walks of life in society, as it did in the US during the 1970's.

Government Minister Tom Parlon has rightly described cocaine use here as the 'elephant in the room of middle class Ireland'.


http://www.ndc.hrb.ie/directory/news_detail.php?cat_id=&news_id=2298&pointer=0


Me, I'm sticking to my pint of Guinness and my Villiger cigar......

 

[VertigoGal]

that's kind of interesting...has crystal meth made it's happy little way over to Europe yet?

 

[financeguy]

VertigoGal: Yes I would assume so but not in large quantities I think.

Everyone else: Hmmm I guess a story not about US politics does not attract much interest here. Oh well.

 

[Sherry Darling]

I was reminded of a little-known but excellent movie by your topic, FG: Veronica
Guerin (sp?). Weren't laws changed in Ireland as a result of her death? Has they reverted to where they were? Is more indeed.

, in general.

 

[financeguy]

Yep, certain laws were changed right enough, mainly to target the proceeds of crime more easily and go after the large scale drug dealers. But these legal changes were about targetting the supply side - the demand for illegal drugs is something that can't really be targeted by legislation alone, it seems.

 

[VertigoGal]

I saw part of that movie...personally I thought they portrayed the woman as kind of dumb and getting what she was asking for, leave it to Jerry Bruckheimer.

Anyway, it does seem like legislation would only be able to do so much if there's a demand for it. Just like our "war on drugs" here. I believe they already have in place many of the policies for dealing with drug dealers that have been so controversial as far as the Patriot Act. (not that we hear about that) But if people want it, or need it is more like it, there's not much the gov't can do to stop it.

 

[beau2ifulday]

I'm not surprised by this. Cocaine seems to have been increasing in popularity for some time. There seem to be alot more casual users around now, as opposed to hard addicts.

I can't vouch for Ireland, but I know cocaine is becoming increasingly easier to get hold of in Britain.

 

[VertigoGal]

well I don't know about Ireland but I know in the states heroin has generally been associated with the inner city, the ghetto, etc. whereas cocaine is much more common in the middle/upper-middle class, more of a recreational drug. maybe in some perverse way the fact that dublin is pretty damn prosperous lately has had something to do with the trend. or maybe i'm just making that up...