Two senior gardaí told me lately it’s getting worse.
Last year we wrote here that around 50pc of all students were doing drugs. The only proof I had was anecdotal. Since then several superintendents have spoken out and their view is we have a drugs epidemic. Two young people were poisoned by bad drugs in recent months.
They were good kids who were not regular drug users and were experimenting.
I was criticised when that article was written. Usually I don’t take a bit of notice but when our children’s lives are put at risk, it’s time to scream stop.
I got my figure wrong. The facts are most of those who treat addiction are of the opinion the 50pc figure is much higher in some of the colleges. The counselling services told me the drug problem has become a full-blown epidemic over the course of the last couple of years.
We are talking about the taking of serious drugs on a regular basis. This isn’t about smoking a joint in your pidgies while watching ‘Home and Away’ in the flat on a wet day.
It took a while for anyone in power to take any notice. Mary Mitchell O’Connor is the minister with responsibility for higher education. She spoke out last August and said there was a massive problem in the third-level institutions. Finally.
She promised to establish a taskforce. The colleges must get involved in enforcement. When will the taskforce report?
Lives are being destroyed every day. I spoke to a teacher in the west and he works in a school for kids who drop out from mainstream education. Many of the kids are badly damaged from drug taking. “They’re only just little boys and girls,” said the teacher with tears in his eyes, “and they will never come from this harm that was inflicted on them. They are damaged for life. They target the vulnerable kids. It doesn’t matter where they come from. No one is safe. Rich or poor. The dealers let them run up a drugs debt and then they pressurise the kids to sell drugs for them.”
A garda who works in a university city told us there’s hardly a night that a student isn’t arrested for drug dealing. Cocaine is the drug of choice and there are thousands of regular users.
Chief Superintendent Gerry Roche said: “There is a serious, serious, serious (cocaine) problem in this country… it’s the biggest issue that we face.” Finally.
Superintendent Joe McKenna told Mayo county politicians: “There are well-educated people taking cocaine. There are gardaí taking it, councillors taking it, teachers.”
Local politicians tell of “how every town and village is awash with cocaine”. I am a GAA person. I have been told of good players who dropped out from their clubs due to drugs. I wasn’t told just the once. I was told 20 times or more.
Two garda sergeants who work in the eastern half of Ireland asked me to write this column. The sergeants are at the coalface. Several gardaí from their units have been injured by people on drugs.
The sergeants are frustrated and angry. “We know the names and addresses of every drug dealer in the places where we work.”
“So why don’t ye catch them then?” I asked.
The sergeants said: “It’s not as easy as just arresting them. We need proof. And resources. They are smart and they have layers and layers between them and us. We will get them all, every one of them, if we get the back up.”
Both sergeants are eminently sensible. They are of the opinion the drug gangs have infiltrated every part of Irish society. “We are trying and we do care but we are overwhelmed.” I think they’re right.
I was in a pub in Tokyo about two weeks ago and who should I see? Only two executives from the Irish pharmaceutical trade. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The drug dealers were in Japan to take care of their regular cocaine customers who were in Tokyo for the Rugby World Cup. The scale of their business is enormous and complex.
The drug gangs are making massive profits. Many of our most influential and powerful citizens are involved, or have been involved, in serious drug use. They are compromised. Is it how some of you are of the opinion the Irish are different to every other country in the world? Drug money buys influence and friends in high places. There is blackmail. These are the only reasons I can find for the lack of action. I know this is not proof. The proof is out there all around you. Drugs are easier to buy than drink or cigarettes.
I ask the sergeants if I’m right in saying there are now more drug dealers than pubs in rural Ireland. “Correct,” says one of the sergeants. Her colleague told of how it was he was about to summons a man for a minor offence. The man was angry. The sergeant laughs. “‘I can think of plenty of more important things for ye to be doing,’ was what he said to me. And do you know, he was right.”
Today in the House of Commons, there will be a Brexit vote that will shape the future of our country for many years to come. We hope our people in the North will be cherished and loved and minded. The drugs problem should be placed on an equal footing with Brexit. Some of our citizens are either dead or dying from drugs. The Troubles are back and the war is taking place all over our country. Let us not stand idly by.
Yes, we do need to look at society as a whole. Why do people take drugs? Is it poverty? Is it social exclusion? Is it mental health? Is there a lack of love in our lives? My view is a good few kids with little if any major issues try drugs as a rite of passage and it’s a peer pressure thing. These issues must be thrashed out. The planning will take time and thought. Many lives will be ruined while the plans are being made. There has to be an immediate response on a grand scale.
There’s a corner in O’Connell Street where the smell of weed would get you high. Drug dealers lurk in doorways. Just across the road, and up a little bit, patriots died for Ireland in the GPO.
We are losing our own country to the forces of evil. They are killing us, wounding us and ruining us. It is time now to free Ireland from the scourge of the latter-day Tans.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Billy Keane: 'We are losing our country to the forces of evil that are selling drugs – and it is time we screamed stop'
Billy Keane: 'We are losing our country to the forces of evil that are selling drugs – and it is time we screamed stop'
Two senior gardaí told me lately it’s getting worse.
Last year we wrote here that around 50pc of all students were doing drugs. The only proof I had was anecdotal. Since then several superintendents have spoken out and their view is we have a drugs epidemic. Two young people were poisoned by bad drugs in recent months.
They were good kids who were not regular drug users and were experimenting.
I was criticised when that article was written. Usually I don’t take a bit of notice but when our children’s lives are put at risk, it’s time to scream stop.
I got my figure wrong. The facts are most of those who treat addiction are of the opinion the 50pc figure is much higher in some of the colleges. The counselling services told me the drug problem has become a full-blown epidemic over the course of the last couple of years.
We are talking about the taking of serious drugs on a regular basis. This isn’t about smoking a joint in your pidgies while watching ‘Home and Away’ in the flat on a wet day.
It took a while for anyone in power to take any notice. Mary Mitchell O’Connor is the minister with responsibility for higher education. She spoke out last August and said there was a massive problem in the third-level institutions. Finally.
She promised to establish a taskforce. The colleges must get involved in enforcement. When will the taskforce report?
Lives are being destroyed every day. I spoke to a teacher in the west and he works in a school for kids who drop out from mainstream education. Many of the kids are badly damaged from drug taking. “They’re only just little boys and girls,” said the teacher with tears in his eyes, “and they will never come from this harm that was inflicted on them. They are damaged for life. They target the vulnerable kids. It doesn’t matter where they come from. No one is safe. Rich or poor. The dealers let them run up a drugs debt and then they pressurise the kids to sell drugs for them.”
A garda who works in a university city told us there’s hardly a night that a student isn’t arrested for drug dealing. Cocaine is the drug of choice and there are thousands of regular users.
Chief Superintendent Gerry Roche said: “There is a serious, serious, serious (cocaine) problem in this country… it’s the biggest issue that we face.” Finally.
Superintendent Joe McKenna told Mayo county politicians: “There are well-educated people taking cocaine. There are gardaí taking it, councillors taking it, teachers.”
Local politicians tell of “how every town and village is awash with cocaine”. I am a GAA person. I have been told of good players who dropped out from their clubs due to drugs. I wasn’t told just the once. I was told 20 times or more.
Two garda sergeants who work in the eastern half of Ireland asked me to write this column. The sergeants are at the coalface. Several gardaí from their units have been injured by people on drugs.
The sergeants are frustrated and angry. “We know the names and addresses of every drug dealer in the places where we work.”
“So why don’t ye catch them then?” I asked.
The sergeants said: “It’s not as easy as just arresting them. We need proof. And resources. They are smart and they have layers and layers between them and us. We will get them all, every one of them, if we get the back up.”
Both sergeants are eminently sensible. They are of the opinion the drug gangs have infiltrated every part of Irish society. “We are trying and we do care but we are overwhelmed.” I think they’re right.
I was in a pub in Tokyo about two weeks ago and who should I see? Only two executives from the Irish pharmaceutical trade. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The drug dealers were in Japan to take care of their regular cocaine customers who were in Tokyo for the Rugby World Cup. The scale of their business is enormous and complex.
The drug gangs are making massive profits. Many of our most influential and powerful citizens are involved, or have been involved, in serious drug use. They are compromised. Is it how some of you are of the opinion the Irish are different to every other country in the world? Drug money buys influence and friends in high places. There is blackmail. These are the only reasons I can find for the lack of action. I know this is not proof. The proof is out there all around you. Drugs are easier to buy than drink or cigarettes.
I ask the sergeants if I’m right in saying there are now more drug dealers than pubs in rural Ireland. “Correct,” says one of the sergeants. Her colleague told of how it was he was about to summons a man for a minor offence. The man was angry. The sergeant laughs. “‘I can think of plenty of more important things for ye to be doing,’ was what he said to me. And do you know, he was right.”
Today in the House of Commons, there will be a Brexit vote that will shape the future of our country for many years to come. We hope our people in the North will be cherished and loved and minded. The drugs problem should be placed on an equal footing with Brexit. Some of our citizens are either dead or dying from drugs. The Troubles are back and the war is taking place all over our country. Let us not stand idly by.
Yes, we do need to look at society as a whole. Why do people take drugs? Is it poverty? Is it social exclusion? Is it mental health? Is there a lack of love in our lives? My view is a good few kids with little if any major issues try drugs as a rite of passage and it’s a peer pressure thing. These issues must be thrashed out. The planning will take time and thought. Many lives will be ruined while the plans are being made. There has to be an immediate response on a grand scale.
There’s a corner in O’Connell Street where the smell of weed would get you high. Drug dealers lurk in doorways. Just across the road, and up a little bit, patriots died for Ireland in the GPO.
We are losing our own country to the forces of evil. They are killing us, wounding us and ruining us. It is time now to free Ireland from the scourge of the latter-day Tans.
Source: Read Full Article