A lethal cocktail
Áine Ryan
aineryan@mayonews.ie
UNQUESTIONABLY, we are all anaesthetised by the ubiquity of drug-related stories. There’s the so-called celebrity tales of cocaine-fuelled parties which the tabloid media, particularly, can be charged with shrouding in a certain glamour. Or alternately, there’s the television pictures of yet another victim of some Dublin gang’s recent casualty of a turf-war, that leaves yet another young man at the bottom of a murky canal or on an anonymous roadside — a Garda forensics’ tent his last ignominious port-of-call.
What’s worse? The fate of suspected drug-dealer Patrick McCormack, recently found in a Galway fish shop’s freezer after being missing for five years, or the death of Cork teenager, 19-year-old Padraig O’Keefe, discovered on the side of the road outside his rural home at Rathcormac, dead from a suspected cocaine overdose.
It is well over a year since Shared Solutions, the strategic plan of the Western Regional Drugs Task Force (WRDTF) was published and six years since the implementation of the National Drugs Strategy 2001-2008. The genesis of the WRDTF, which covers Counties Mayo, Roscommon and Galway, lies in a recommendation of the National Drugs Strategy to establish regional groups based on the geographical boundaries of the former health boards.
Established in 2003, two unique characteristics are its inclusion of alcohol misuse within its brief and, moreover, its spearheading of a pilot scheme involving the appointment of the first Community Liaison Officers in the country under the remit of the Drugs Task Force and funded by host agency, the VEC.
It’s less than six months since Ms Louise O’Malley was appointed to the position of Community Liaison Worker (CLW) in County Mayo. Based in Castlebar, Louise is adamant that criminalisation of drug-users is not an ideal way to resolve an issue that has increasingly become endemic in every strata of society.
She is strongly committed to the National Drugs Strategy’s four-pillared ethos of: ‘Research, Prevention and Education, Treatment and Supply Reduction’. Louise is also already acutely aware of the need for an integrated approach and the multi-agency co-operation required to tackle the complex variables involved in drug misuse.
“Drugs are in every part of society now, and, of course, some of these areas are easier to pick up on than others. While in the more deprived areas there seems to be a higher risk of people using drugs, these people are also defined by where they live which usually will have high unemployment, low educational attainment and thus [it’s a vicious circle], they are more likely to take drugs,” said Louise O’Malley.
“Furthermore, if you live in a deprived area there is a stigma attached to that, which is then exacerbated by the drug use,” she said, observing that 69 per cent of prosecutions in Ireland last year were for possession, as opposed to so-called ‘pushing’.
The criminal justice system is not the only way forward, argues Louise, citing an innovative system in Portugal, involving police, lawyers and social workers who link victims with treatment services.
One serious misconception, according to Ms O’Malley, is the focus by government on youth, and youth-related drink-driving, as the primary bête noire of this problem.
She observes that statistics show that men and women between the ages of 50-64 binge-drink almost as often as their counterparts in the 18-29 age group.
Another interesting observation made by Ms O’Malley is the prevalence and primacy of problems in County Mayo caused by legally-bought or prescribed drugs.
“I think that alcohol and benzodiazepine [valium or xanax] and anti-depressants are causing Mayo’s major drug problems. Alcohol has been so normalised,” added Louise O’Malley.
Coincidentally, a Garda Drugs Unit was established in the Mayo Division of the force around two months ago. It is comprised of a Garda sergeant, Jim Cadden, and three gardaí and, by all accounts, is already reaping a harvest of illegal substances. The proactive unit liaises with the six superintendents in the division.
“Of course, we realise we’re only one part of the solution and there’s a huge socio-economic related problem out there,” said Chief Supt Tony McNamara, adding that the Gardaí had already held meetings with the WRDTF.
“There is no question about it: drug misuse is across every strata and age-group of society. We find there are more and more seizures of cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy which are now our main areas of concern,” he said, confirming there has been a significant increase of use throughout the county.
Supt McNamara told The Mayo News that the new unit is interested in apprehending ‘the more serious players in the market’ and in tackling the problem of drug abuse in both the traveller and non-national communities.
“There are serious players in the drugs distribution area throughout the county. While we haven’t made significant inroads on that level yet, the unit is making progress in the whole area, including the higher echelons,” said Supt McNamara.
In recent weeks there have been, at least, two prosecutions for dealing in drugs in Mayo’s courts. One was for cocaine, the other for cannabis. Both led to custodial sentences. Both accused were, as one solicitor said, ‘part of the misery’, ‘stuck in a vicious cycle’. Nothing glamorous about their stories, even if they do manage to capture a headline every now and then.
