Cocaine "now the biggest killer by far" says coroner.

rubadub

This was front page on the herald am rag today. Now I hope they were just misquoting the poor guy, and not doing the usual media crap of ignoring legal recreational drugs. I can accept the gutter press wanting to cause a stir with headlines like this. Just like some people just point blank refuse to allow alcohol or tobacco to be compared to illegal drugs when debating legalisation- makes for a nice convenient argument! would be like a judge refusing to allow a lawyer quote a precedent!

Now some people and the media rags might be hypocritical fools the equivalent of putting fingers in their ears and screaming LA LA LA, but I expected more from a state employed medical professional. Sticking your head in the sand and just ignoring the problem of alcohol and tobacco is bizarre. The traditional usage just blinds people to the horrific reality of these drugs, so much so that people will refuse to accept they are harmful, the old "the government only makes drugs illegal if they are harmful" mindset, utterly ignorant of the true reason for drug laws, and a stupid trust in these laws as though they were instigated by medical professionals with your health in mind.

In the article it was counting some deaths which included "2 people who took their life while on cocaine", now I do not know the figures in Ireland but I did read before that in either US or UK, a massive %, maybe 80%+ of people who commit suicide took alcohol before doing so. I doubt these are included in alcohol death figures though.

I only hope he was misquoted...

Dragan

Bah, typical newspaper bull ****.

WindSock

Around 400 people have died this year on roads. How many have died from coke? More by far? I doubt it.

david1two3

As Shaz said twenty two years ago "its the most stupid fuggin drug Ive ever had in my life",the only time she ever made sense.

Dave!

Anybody able to dig up some stats on this?

Died on road:
died as a result of alcohol use:
died as a result of tobacco use:
died as a result of cocaine use:
etc

Lands Leaving

Maybe its literally larger than other things, you know, if someone was killed by being trapped under a few tons of coke.

Or it kept growing, like the blob.

THE COKE - COMING TO A DEALER NEAR YOU SOON.

Naked Lepper

how many lines of cocaine are sniffed every week?

id say +100,000 anyway in this country

how many people die from sniffing coke a week?

i think there has been 46 drug related deaths in ireland in 2006

i wouldnt like to imagine how many drugs have been taken (not including alcohol or tobacco) in ireland in the past year...

i dont see dieing from an overdose as a huge deterrant to stop people taking drugs with statistics like these, they may **** alot of peoples lives up if abused in the long run but **** all people are dieing from it in reality - the media would like you to believe otherwise mind you.

Lux23

I think he meant biggest killer of illegal drugs, theres no way more people are dying from coke than tobacco or alcohol.


Coroner warns of danger posed by cocaine
Tue, Dec 18, 2007

The Dublin County Coroner said today that cocaine was the most common cause of death in more than half of all inquests into drug related deaths heard at Dublin County Coroner's Court this year.

Speaking at a double inquest into the deaths of two teenagers who drowned while intoxicated by cocaine and ecstacy, Dr Geraghty said: "But by far the biggest killer is cocaine. Of the 26 cocaine related inquests, cocaine toxicity on its own accounted for 15 deaths, while cocaine together with heroin accounted for a further six deaths," said Dr Geraghty.

"We had two occasions where people took their own lives after taking cocaine and a single car crash," which involved cocaine , "and now we have two deaths from drowning," he said.

Mr Coughlan's body was recovered from the Grand Canal three days later by a Garda water unit , while Mr White's body was recovered six days after his disappearance.

The inquest heard they died by drowning with cocaine and ecstasy intoxication as a contributory cause.

"This is a very tragic case," said Dr Geraghty. "Looking back on 2007 there has been a large number of inquests into drug related deaths. And nearly all of the deaths involved young people."

© 2007 ireland.com

Degsy

Naked Lepper wrote: »

i dont see dieing from an overdose as a huge deterrant to stop people taking drugs with statistics like these, they may **** alot of peoples lives up if abused in the long run but **** all people are dieing from it in reality - the media would like you to believe otherwise mind you.

If it acts as a deterent so much the better.The problem of illegal drugs killing people is not limited to the actual end user,it has spawned a multi-million euro crime empire in which people are getting murdered almost on a daily basis.Since the late 1970's for example,heroin tore the heart out of many city centre areas with people either becomming addicted or falling victim to crime as a result of addicts.Some families of ten or eleven children had the mother outlive them all,and all so people like the Dunnes and the Cahills could rake in the cash.Nowadays heroin isnt creating too many more addicts but cocaine certainly is,they might not be as visible now as the smackheads are but give it time..in the meantime gangs are turning certain areas into killing fields in order to get a bigger slice of the pie.Killian doing some charlie in Foxrock is indirectly responsible for Wacker getting shot dead in Crumlin.

Lands Leaving

Killian. I knew it was him.

KingOfFairview

Lands Leaving wrote: »

Killian. I knew it was him.

Even when it was the bears, I knew it was Killian

Dragan

Degsy wrote: »

it has spawned a multi-million euro crime empire in which people are getting murdered almost on a daily basis.

you mean like politics?

prendy

would old age not be the biggest killer in Ireland.
id say cancer 2nd?
cocaine would be way down the list i reckon!

WindSock

Degsy wrote: »

Killian doing some charlie in Foxrock is indirectly responsible for Wacker getting shot dead in Crumlin.

The surely Guns are more responsable for deaths, than coke? Or criminal gangs are. I know illegal drugs fund criminal activity, I'm not gong to bother with the usual debate again about should they be legal, but if it weren't coke, i'm sure the crims would fin something else to get their mitts on and have wars.

daveharnett

Bacon "still the biggest killer by far" says me

mmm bacon

tallaght01

The coroner was talking about direct drug related deaths.

So it's true, if you count direct death from taking a dose of a drug.

But it doesn't count, for example, those who catch HIV or hepatitis from injecting drugs etc.

WindSock

DaveMcG wrote: »

Anybody able to dig up some stats on this?

Died on road:
died as a result of alcohol use:
died as a result of tobacco use:
died as a result of cocaine use:
etc

trying to have a go on the Central Statistics Office website, but it won't let me.

BobTheBeat

Degsy wrote: »

....Killian doing some charlie in Foxrock is indirectly responsible for Wacker getting shot dead in Crumlin.

+1

Its the sheer indifference of people to the problems that arise from coke that is the most worrying. Sure, its fine to say "I took coke once, nay bother on me" or "Coke is grand but it can turn ppl into dickheads", but the reality is exactly what degsy talked about. A few lines at a party or whatever is directly contributing to some scumbag either lining his pocket or having a few holes put in his head.

pickarooney

But it does count drowning, car crashes, suicides or lung cancer in the vicinity of cocaine apparently...

ixoy

tallaght01 wrote: »

The coroner was talking about direct drug related deaths.

Precisely, that's the impression I got. More people died from the direct ingestion of cocaine than say drinking alcohol. Now far more people drinking alcohol might then have rammed their car into a tree, but that's a different cause of direct death.
The information was just poorly explained.

Davidius

Everytime I hear or read "recreational drugs" I just laugh.
LOL at drugs in general.

RobbieTheRobber

Davidius wrote: »

Everytime I hear or read "recreational drugs" I just laugh.
LOL at drugs in general.

Thats crazy that is everytime I hear a funny joke I laugh mad how different people can be.

Naked Lepper

Degsy wrote: »

If it acts as a deterent so much the better.The problem of illegal drugs killing people is not limited to the actual end user,it has spawned a multi-million euro crime empire in which people are getting murdered almost on a daily basis.Since the late 1970's for example,heroin tore the heart out of many city centre areas with people either becomming addicted or falling victim to crime as a result of addicts.Some families of ten or eleven children had the mother outlive them all,and all so people like the Dunnes and the Cahills could rake in the cash.Nowadays heroin isnt creating too many more addicts but cocaine certainly is,they might not be as visible now as the smackheads are but give it time..in the meantime gangs are turning certain areas into killing fields in order to get a bigger slice of the pie.Killian doing some charlie in Foxrock is indirectly responsible for Wacker getting shot dead in Crumlin.

did you copy and paste that off a paul williams article

thanks for this history lesson

WindSock

Here's a linky to the death stats for 2006

http://www.cso.ie/statistics/principalcausesofdeath.htm

Davidius

RobbieTheRobber wrote: »

Thats crazy that is everytime I hear a funny joke I laugh mad how different people can be.

Right!

What?

Degsy

Naked Lepper wrote: »

did you copy and paste that off a paul williams article

thanks for this history lesson

Yeah,thats exactly what i did,i dont have clue about anything myself and i'm only 15.
History lesson?
sheesh..:rolleyes:

kevmy

He meant of illegal drugs.

Alot more people have died from cocaine than any other illegal drugs. I think he said something like 28 people died from cocaine, 16 from heroin and 4 from ecstacy.

And thats just infront of him (he's the Dublin county coroner)

Also we don't know how many people die from drug driving, heart attacks/strokes brought on from coke or long term drug abuse. The fact that more people die from alcohol abuse is a really bad arguement. If you take into account the number of people dying from alcohol compared to the number of people consuming it on a regular basis compared to that of cocaine then cocaine is infinitely more dangerous.
Also if you say that the sale of cocaine is completely illegal and gives the criminal element a huge amount of cash as well as leading to more criminality. There is no up side to coke people

zAbbo

Where there any deaths related to Jenkem?

MagicMarker

I read the other day that in 2005. Cocaine was the 2nd biggest killer in Kildare. 2nd only to alcohol.

Couldn't be arsed to find a link:)

Degsy

Degsy wrote: »

(A) Some families of ten or eleven children had the mother outlive them all............................... (B) Killian doing some charlie in Foxrock is indirectly responsible for Wacker getting shot dead in Crumlin.

I agree with a lot of what you have to say but...

A) This is anecdotal claptrap and is just as bad as some of the scare-mongering gutter journalism that the red-tops resort to. It makes your valid points less believeable, hence the "paul williams" comment from your man.

This, I disagree with. By comparison, anyone who wears Nike/Reebok/whatever is indirectly responsible for child labour and slavery, anyone who gives poor people money, perpetuates poverty, and anyone who feeds pigeons is responsible for the bird crap all over my car.

Sorry, but I don't buy into it.

Aslo, anyone who gets shot in this country, 9 times outta ten, deserves it.

BurnsCarpenter

Lux23 wrote: »

I think he meant biggest killer of illegal drugs, theres no way more people are dying from coke than tobacco or alcohol.


Coroner warns of danger posed by cocaine
Tue, Dec 18, 2007

The Dublin County Coroner said today that cocaine was the most common cause of death in more than half of all inquests into drug related deaths heard at Dublin County Coroner's Court this year.

Speaking at a double inquest into the deaths of two teenagers who drowned while intoxicated by cocaine and ecstacy, Dr Geraghty said: "But by far the biggest killer is cocaine. Of the 26 cocaine related inquests, cocaine toxicity on its own accounted for 15 deaths, while cocaine together with heroin accounted for a further six deaths," said Dr Geraghty.

"We had two occasions where people took their own lives after taking cocaine and a single car crash," which involved cocaine , "and now we have two deaths from drowning," he said.

Mr Coughlan's body was recovered from the Grand Canal three days later by a Garda water unit , while Mr White's body was recovered six days after his disappearance.

The inquest heard they died by drowning with cocaine and ecstasy intoxication as a contributory cause.

"This is a very tragic case," said Dr Geraghty. "Looking back on 2007 there has been a large number of inquests into drug related deaths. And nearly all of the deaths involved young people."

© 2007 ireland.com

Is anybody else having trouble understanding the first sentence?
In more than half of all inquests cocaine was the most common form of death.

david1two3

Degsy wrote: »

If it acts as a deterent so much the better.The problem of illegal drugs killing people is not limited to the actual end user,it has spawned a multi-million euro crime empire in which people are getting murdered almost on a daily basis.Since the late 1970's for example,heroin tore the heart out of many city centre areas with people either becomming addicted or falling victim to crime as a result of addicts.Some families of ten or eleven children had the mother outlive them all,and all so people like the Dunnes and the Cahills could rake in the cash.Nowadays heroin isnt creating too many more addicts but cocaine certainly is,they might not be as visible now as the smackheads are but give it time..in the meantime gangs are turning certain areas into killing fields in order to get a bigger slice of the pie.Killian doing some charlie in Foxrock is indirectly responsible for Wacker getting shot dead in Crumlin.

Oxfrocking cross dressers are to busy powdering their noses to be doing drugs.

Requiem4adream

Deleted User wrote: »

Aslo, anyone who gets shot in this country, 9 times outta ten, deserves it.

83.2% of statistics are made up on the spot. Nobody deserves to get shot. Your value system is completely disingenuous. If a family member of yours runs into turmoil in their life and does something drastic like a courier run for a drug dealer or decides to rob a bank, they deserve to be shot do they? Or maybe it's just the stereotype scumbag you have in mind.... look bottom line imo nobody deserves to be shot, nobody "deserves" to die.

People make mistakes, redemption and mercy are distinctly human qualities. In Ireland we abolished the death penalty long ago. Friends of my family were sentenced to Death in 1975 before the sentence being commuted to life by the President, i wasnt born then but in my lifetime since their release i've found them to be nice people. People make mistakes, by your value system they'd all be shot long before being given a chance at redemption. I cant agree with it.

daniel3982

You wait until crack takes hold in Dublin like it has in Manchester and London, you've really got that to look forward to if you think it's bad with the scumbags now....

Imagine all the social problems that heroin bought added to those of cocaine, shake it up and multiply it by 5. Scary.

Laslo

Cocaine "now the biggest killer by far"

I just had to lol at this. The best thing about this kind of journalism is being able to laugh at the dumbasses who lap it up.

Tha Gopher

daniel3982 wrote: »

You wait until crack takes hold in Dublin like it has in Manchester and London, you've really got that to look forward to if you think it's bad with the scumbags now....

Im not sure it can. The cocaine Irish gangs are selling is so impure it cant be used to cook crack. Reason it took off in the UK is because Jamaican gangs were getting near 100% pure stuff from nearby Colombia and smuggling it in.

Requiem4adream wrote: »

Friends of my family were sentenced to Death in 1975 before the sentence being commuted to life by the President, i wasnt born then but in my lifetime since their release i've found them to be nice people. People make mistakes, by your value system they'd all be shot long before being given a chance at redemption. I cant agree with it.

I presume they killed a cop, as afaik it was the only capital crime between the general abolition of the death penalty and it being thrown out entirely by the 90s.

Requiem4adream

Yeah Capital Murder. Did the case in Criminal Law good few years ago in college, cant exactly remember the Supreme Court ruling on it - open to correction but i think it was held that Mens Rea for Capital Murder could not be proven, as they had no reason to believe the victim was a member of the Garda Siochana (in plain clothes).

SubjectSean

Degsy wrote: »

Killian doing some charlie in Foxrock is indirectly responsible for Wacker getting shot dead in Crumlin.

Nope. Killian is just one man. The State that forced Killian and others to buy cocaine from criminals is the guilty party. Cops and customs do a superb job of keeping the price artificially high for the gangsters. Make shooting Whacker well worthwhile.

Terry

SubjectSean wrote: »

Nope. Killian is just one man. The State that forced Killian and others to buy cocaine from criminals is the guilty party. Cops and customs do a superb job of keeping the price artificially high for the gangsters. Make shooting Whacker well worthwhile.

Jesus fúcking Christ. That is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most ridiculous statement I have ever read, and I've make quite a few ridiculous statements in my time.

Nobody forced anyone to buy anything.

If cocaine was legal, you would be bitching and moaning about all the coke heads wasting your tax money in A&E.

SubjectSean

Terry wrote: »

I've make quite a few ridiculous statements in my time.
.

You are right Terry I have seen you do it Nobody had to force the demand, the demand was already there in the marketplace ever before the drug was made illegal. Indeed it was only because of the demand that it was made illegal. If it wasn't Killian making the demand it would be somebody else. You are failing to take account of the depth and breadth of human nature. Not everyone is like you, what gives you the right to demand that they should be?

I don't bitch and moan about all the many accident prone pissheads and alcohol fuelled thugs and wifebeaters wasting my tax money in A&E. Explain why my position on coke would be any different given that it's equally dangerous.

Terry

SubjectSean wrote: »

You are right Terry I have seen you do it Nobody had to force the demand, the demand was already there in the marketplace ever before the drug was made illegal. Indeed it was only because of the demand that it was made illegal. If it wasn't Killian making the demand it would be somebody else. You are failing to take account of the depth and breadth of human nature. Not everyone is like you, what gives you the right to demand that they should be?

I don't bitch and moan about all the many accident prone pissheads and alcohol fuelled thugs and wifebeaters wasting my tax money in A&E. Explain why my position on coke would be any different given that it's equally dangerous.

Off to the conspiracy theories forum with you.

It was made illegal because it is highly dangerous, not because people wanted to do it.

This bollix is akin to Godwin's law.
Every time someone mentions legalising a certain drug, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are drawn into it, when there is no real comparison.

I'm gonna call this "Terry's law".

faceman

Terry wrote: »

If cocaine was legal, you would be bitching and moaning about all the coke heads wasting your tax money in A&E.

Well said.

panda100

prendy wrote: »

would old age not be the biggest killer in Ireland.
id say cancer 2nd?
!

He was talking about the biggest killer of young people. However,cocaine isnt the biggest killer of young people. Suicide is,followed by RTA's.

I have never touched cocaine or would ever dream of touching it until the recent media hype. Alll the pics and articles in every newspaper in Ireland recently has made me slightly intrested in cocaine and seeing what all the fuss is about......is that wrong

RobbieTheRobber

panda100 wrote: »

I have never touched cocaine or would ever dream of touching it until the recent media hype. Alll the pics and articles in every newspaper in Ireland recently has made me slightly intrested in cocaine and seeing what all the fuss is about......is that wrong

All the pics of people who died having taken it?:eek:
or
The pics and articles about the how its a glamorous drug and everyone is doing it, wanted to make you take it?

Yeah do it but if you do and die Im deleting this

Laslo

Terry wrote: »

Every time someone mentions legalising a certain drug, alcohol, tobacco... are drawn into it, when there is no real comparison.

Utter, utter nonsense.

RobbieTheRobber

Terry wrote: »

Every time someone mentions legalising a certain drug, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are drawn into it, when there is no real comparison.

Can use I caffeine then instead as a comparison?

SubjectSean

Terry wrote: »

Off to the conspiracy theories forum with you.

It was made illegal because it is highly dangerous, not because people wanted to do it.

This bollix is akin to Godwin's law.
Every time someone mentions legalising a certain drug, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are drawn into it, when there is no real comparison.

I'm gonna call this "Terry's law".

Cocaine was highly dangerous when first synthesised in the Victorian era but it was not made illegal until much later when demand increased. You seem to think that over 50 years passed before anybody noticed that cocaine was dangerous. How this could have happened?

Terry's Law refuses to compare recreational drugs with recreational drugs despite the opinions of academia and the medical profession. I find this really retarded and would like to rename it the "Ostrich Law"

RobbieTheRobber

SubjectSean wrote: »

Terry's Law refuses to compare recreational drugs with recreational drugs despite the opinions of academia and the medical profession. I find this really retarded and would like to rename it the "Ostrich Law"

I would like to second that
The ostrich law is a much more suitable name

SubjectSean

panda100 wrote: »

I have never touched cocaine or would ever dream of touching it until the recent media hype. Alll the pics and articles in every newspaper in Ireland recently has made me slightly intrested in cocaine and seeing what all the fuss is about......is that wrong

Never mind 'em. Most of the media types supplying you with the hype are coke heads themselves. It is a vacuous empty drug for vacuous empty people with vacuous empty lives. This is why it is such a popular drug in the West. Really Panda you're better off not investigating this waste of money.

Terry

Terry wrote: »

Off to the conspiracy theories forum with you.

It was made illegal because it is highly dangerous, not because people wanted to do it.

This bollix is akin to Godwin's law.
Every time someone mentions legalising a certain drug, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are drawn into it, when there is no real comparison.

I'm gonna call this "Terry's law".

Bam.

Requiem4adream

lmfao. well played sir!