Open Drug Dealing.

Degsy

Neilos wrote: »

Just because you can't see the Gardai doesn't mean they're not there.

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/15/00077.asp

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/22/00125.asp

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/eleven-face-charges-after-major-garda-drug-operation-2252060.html

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/operation-clean-street-nabs-swords-drugs-youth-794556.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0701/drugs.html

I'm not saying this is the case in the OP's situation but to say the Gardai are not bothered is obviously incorrect. They have limited resources for these kind of operations but they are the only effective way to make a dent in whats going on. It's very easy to stand on the outside and take a black and white view of the situation.

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/operation-clean-street-nabs-swords-drugs-youth-794556.html


Jesus christ..that report is 12 years old and it concerns a 16 year old being busted with 20 quids worth of hash....not exactly relevant to the current problem now is it?

They said yes, and he went to the defendant and asked him where he kept the hash. He said it was in a beer bottle near the wall. The two gardaí paid £20 for the cannabis. They paid with a £10 marked note and the rest was their own money, the court heard.
When the defendant was arrested and searched later, he was in possession of the marked £10 note.
He had one previous conviction for a similar offence.
‘Why was he dealing in drugs?’ asked Judge Desmond Windle.
‘He fell in with a bad lot,’ answered solicitor Corine Ranson.
‘He himself is a bad lot. He’s a dealer. It needs a certain degree of low cunning to get drugs in the first place and then sell them,’ said Judge Windle.

Bloodwing

Degsy wrote: »

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/operation-clean-street-nabs-swords-drugs-youth-794556.html


Jesus christ..that report is 12 years old and it concerns a 16 year old being busted with 20 quids worth of hash....not exactly relevant to the current problem now is it?

Good work skipping over the ones from a couple of months back that say the operations are on going and the one from two years ago relating to 11 people charged with sale of heroin, and yes it is relevant to the current problem. Drug dealers are dealers no matter what they happen to be caught with at the time. Just because he's selling hash today doesn't mean he won't sell heroin tomorrow.

As i said I'm not saying this is the case in the OP's situation, if you look at my post again i was replying to mcmoustache's post saying that AGS are not bothered about sorting it out. That is a very general statement and I am of the opinion that it is incorrect.

Here's some more cases of them not being bothered.

http://insideireland.ie/2012/03/09/operation-boa-sees-25-arrested-in-coolock-59938/

http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/14783/

Degsy

Neilos wrote: »

Good work skipping over the ones from a couple of months back that say the operations are on going and the one from two years ago relating to 11 people charged with sale of heroin,

Two years ago they cherged 11 people? Well aint that a big deal!

In two minutes they could nab twice that number of people dealing on Nth Earl Street alone if they could be bothered to open thier eyes.

Neilos wrote: »

Just because he's selling hash today doesn't mean he won't sell heroin tomorrow. ,

But there are people selling heroin today and nothing is being done about it.

Ask any of the business owners around Marlboro st,Eden Quay,talbot st and O'connell St is there a current,ongoing,worsening problem with drug-dealing and antisocial behaviour relating to it.

You can see OPEN dealing going on under the clock in Clery's or at any of teh statues along O'Connell st in CLEAR view of the Guard standing doing nothing outside the GPO.

Two days ago i saw a woman pouring physeptone into somebody else's lucazade bottle outside Micheal Guineys whilst two ban guards walked by no more than ten feet away.

Maybe AGS need to eat more carrots or go to specsavers or something.

Davidth88

I too have seen open drug dealing by the by the Woollen Mills the North side of H'pany bridge.

It was so blatent , there were a number of tourists sheltering from the rain there and you could see their jaws drop .

As for the ' top end ' of O'Connell St , that really is dump , loads of ' Shufflers ' as I call them , with their half filled bottles of ' coke ' or whatever .

Degsy

Check out the junction of Marlboro St and Eden Quay..especially the Abbey Theatre side..almost everybody you see in that area is either buying or selling drugs and they are not doing it surreptitiously,believe me.

Perhaps AGS should be trained in the subtle art of spotting drug transactions when they occur in the middle of the street,in broad daylight,in the same locations.

whatnext

When I lived in the UK many years ago we had a similar problem with "ladies of the night", open dealing, and drug use in the area.

Police, NHS, or Council didn't care. Apparently the problem had moved to our area from another because of vigilantes.

We met with the local MP who told us that he would help us as follows. He knew the system and said that if he merely made a complaint that it was wasting everyone's time, he needed backup.

Every time we saw something it was reported to the police (dealing, using and hookers). the routine was simple, every one in the apartment block I lived in had the number for the local station. Phone up say what you saw and ask who you are speaking to. White it down, including the time and date.

After 2 weeks the MP came back, collected all the records, and there were a lot!! He then went down to the station and wanted to know what action had been taken on each report. Obviously nothing was done, so he said he would be back in two weeks to see what was done then. We kept reporting everything, the police new the script as reports were probably in the hundreds within a month, so it only took 20seconds to make the report.

Anyway long story short, we ended up with almost a permanent police presence, plenty of arrests, and the area cleaned up within two months.

They arrived back in the area about 6 months later, reported it to the police, action taken straight away, never a problem there since (10 years on).

Bottom line is statistics are kept by the Gardai on reported crimes, and if the statistics get to a certain level lights will flash, and something will be done.

CucaFace

This is something that really bothers me as well.

I assume the OP works near Talbot/ Marlboro St ?

Look you won't stop this heroin epidemic but what really gets to me is that our Government have allowed this to go on in the City Centre where thousands of tourists see these animals (because this is what they really are) every single day is just beyond me.

How can they not realise that this is probably costing this country huge sums in lost revenue from other Tourists? Do they think that these tourists will go home and not tell everyone they meet about all the junkies all over the bloody place? I would guess many have been put off coming here on the back of such stories of this in your face dealing and constant drug abuse which I've seen have made so many people feel really insecure.

It's actually a national disgrace this has been allowed to happen and that nothing has been done to stop it.

They should be driven out of the city centre. It won't stop them taking and dealing, but it would clean the bloody place up and stop showing us up as a disgusting race of people to those who chose to visit here.

A far bigger Garda presence should exist in these areas, a new law passed that if you have tested positive for Heroin you can be moved along by the guards without any due cause and far more Street camera's should be introduced along the North side City Centre. Basically these Zombie's should be pestered out of the city centre for good. F their civil rights. They lose these in my mind when they become Heroin addicts. The city centre should be made off limits to them.

A zero tolerance approach is what is needed, but if it wasn't done in the booms times, what hope do we have now with all these cuts?

2ndcoming

I work on the upper end of O'Connell St. and it would bring out the Travis Bickle in anyone soon enough.


The main problem is despite the appearance of these degenerates the vast majority of the dealing and drugging going on is of prescription tablets. The Garda's hands are actually tied on this one because abuse of prescriptions falls under the jurisdiction of the Irish Medical Board, and as the drugs aren't actually illegal, there's little they can do about the situation under current legislation.

The biggest joke is that O'Connell St is the place the millions of tourists that visit Dublin every year are shuttled to from the airport and the first thing they see (apart from the rain) will be some transmoglified zombie shuffling by in a pair of Nike Shox and a Sergio Tacchini tracksuit.

CucaFace

2ndcoming wrote: »

I work on the upper end of O'Connell St. and it would bring out the Travis Bickle in anyone soon enough.


The main problem is despite the appearance of these degenerates the vast majority of the dealing and drugging going on is of prescription tablets. The Garda's hands are actually tied on this one because abuse of prescriptions falls under the jurisdiction of the Irish Medical Board, and as the drugs aren't actually illegal, there's little they can do about the situation under current legislation.

The biggest joke is that O'Connell St is the place the millions of tourists that visit Dublin every year are shuttled to from the airport and the first thing they see (apart from the rain) will be some transmoglified zombie shuffling by in a pair of Nike Shox and a Sergio Tacchini tracksuit.

Couldn't agree more.

Tackling these guys dealing really isn't the issue for me as I can see that it would be nearly impossible mission.

But you can tackle where these 'people' operate in.

Laws would have to be changed and inforced on a really srict regime but unfortunately massive man power and resources would be needed which I would guess the Govt now really just won't bother with.

In other cities they have places like certain parks where they 'allow' such types of dealing with minimal interferance by Police. You don't stop the drug problem, but at least you can contain it in one area.

And at the moment our drug problem seems to be contained in the City Centre where it is witnessed by so many Tourists every single day

Again I still find this a hard thing to understand how this has been allowed to happen.

starviewadams

It's not the addicts that really bother me,if the dealers weren't here they wouldn't be congregating in the area.It's the fact that these lads have been able to come along here for basically a month now and deal heroin openly,and despite me and the people in my offices making loads of reports to the Gardai about it,not a thing has been done to tackle the problem.

It seems that the powers that be don't really mind what's going on in the inner city,as they are not the ones who have to witness it everyday.I'm sure if this type of thing was happenning out in some leafy suburb that it would be stopped fairly quickly.Just the way things go in this country I suppose.Very frustrating and disheartening.

CucaFace

starviewadams wrote: »

It's not the addicts that really bother me,if the dealers weren't here they wouldn't be congregating in the area.

But you can also argue that the dealers wouldn't be there if their 'customers' weren't being allowed to congregate in the area in the first place.

And it's easier spot an addict than a dealer. It's not like they don't stand out around the streets.

Ive never been to another City in the world where the city centre is like this.

Dyr

ehhh...le webcam?

Degsy

Nice runners,eh?




these loving parents were dealing out of the child's buggy

RATM

I've got a similar problem outside my office in Pearse St, right around the corner from the Drug Treatment Board which is basically a shooting gallery for addicts. They congregate twice a day to get methadone but in the meantime a lot of dealing goes on in the alley. Every morning a Volkswagen Golf pulls and the dealer goes down the alley to deal. I've told the Gardai and even given them the reg plate but that was a year ago and it still goes on- they just aren't interested.

4 weeks ago I saw four junkies literally kicking the head off another right outside the entrance to the Trinity Capital Hotel- all in front of a packed bus full of tourists who had literally just arrived. The tourists had to scamper out onto the roadway at Pearse Street so they wouldn't get in the way of the fight. I felt ashamed to be Irish that day, what a sh1t welcome to our country and capital. The very fact the junkies were less than 50 metres from Pearse Street Garda Station yet still conducted this vicious assult just goes to show that they really don't give a dam about the law and aren't afraid of it one little bit.

xflyer

This kind of thing has been ongoing for many years in Dublin. You didn't have to look very hard to come across it at various places. Winetavern Street was one spot I remember, also back up in Nicholas st. In fact I've seen dealers shuffling away furtively when I walk near them.

Apparently I've been told that I have the look of a cop. Which will make it really hard for me if I ever develop a drug habit.;) But I suspect they are suspicious of anyone who fits the profile of an undercover drug squad officer. This might explain why uniformed officers don't seem to appear even if you call. There could be an ongoing operation gathering evidence and the uniformed Garda told to stay away.

This could be the case in the OPs situation.

Or it could be that there no real interest in moving them on. Quite simply because that's all that happens. They move on to another location and again to another location. In any case low level drug dealers are of no interest to police.

But ultimately there doesn't appear to be a political will to deal with the drug problem. Unless the dealers are shooting out with each other using AK47s. It's not taken too seriously. Also I think the fact that it's happening in Dublin means non Dublin politicans are not inclined to give a dam. But you can be damm sure if it was happening in Kenny's home town. It would be dealt with swiftly.

A bit of zero tolerance is needed. But we won't get it from either the politicans or the Garda top brass.

I am pie

We need surveillance cameras in high risk areas, and populated areas with lots of tourists. Need effective custodial sentences.

Treatment clincs need to be outside of the city centre, away from major population centres.

Degsy

I am pie wrote: »

Treatment clincs need to be outside of the city centre, away from major population centres.

They need to be shut down and theunds diverted towards proper healtcare..junkies falling foul of the legal system should be dealt with as criminals NOT as poor lost people who fell in with a bad crowd.

Your average Joe Shmoe gets 4 years for hitting somebody outside a pub whereas a junkie with 54 previous convictions gets off with a suspended sentence because he was "depressed by his mother's death ten years ago".

They are not sick people they are a cancer on society.

I am pie

Degsy wrote: »

They need to be shut down and theunds diverted towards proper healtcare..junkies falling foul of the legal system should be dealt with as criminals NOT as poor lost people who fell in with a bad crowd.

Your average Joe Shmoe gets 4 years for hitting somebody outside a pub whereas a junkie with 54 previous convictions gets off with a suspended sentence because he was "depressed by his mother's death ten years ago".

They are not sick people they are a cancer on society.

Think that through. Fine, we arrest them all. Prisons are overcrowded to the extent that we are actually sanctioning early release. We haven't a pot to p1ss in, so you can rule out building all those new prisons we'd actually need.

Unless you try and treat the addiction they will come out as addicts, or certainly return to addiction. What then? Lock em up again? ...in what, a boat moored of Rockall? We run out of capacity and money pretty sharpish.

What we want is less addicts. I'm not interested in the touchy-feely stuff, but in tangible outcomes. How do you stop an addict from being an addict? I'm not sure, but i'm pretty sure we haven't the money or capacity to lock them all up and we haven't a proper treatment system in place.

You're solution doesn't work as far as i can see as it ignores practical realites in terms of capacity & funding.

If we make it legal and hand it out in clinics out of town we reduce crime and we reduce the cost of housing them in criminal institutions en masse. We impose 10 to 15 year sentences for anyone who go outside of the legal dispensing centres?

hardCopy

They often hang around on the corner beside the 130 bus stop. They aren't even quiet about it, you'll hear them shouting back and fourth about who's got what (various doses of Benzos when I asked a local cop what they meant)

They drift up and down from one corner to another when the cops arrive. These characters will likely have dozens or hundreds of convictions each, if the cops spent all day chasing them they'd never have any time to deal with muggers, pickpockets, shoplifters etc, these are the crimes people scream loudest about.

There aren't enough cops to spend all day rounding them up, the judges won't give them harsh enough sentences and if they do there's no room for them in prison.

CavanCrew

Im fairly pessimistic about the whole thing, cant see anything happening unless drastic changes are made... which is highly unlikely given the lax attitude.

Hannibal

the problem with on-street dealing is that they generally have low amounts on them, the main Garda resources are focused on the big seizures.

They pick up people with €100 or €200 worth of stuff on them and it's not worth processing beause they won't be sent down for it even if they have 100 previous convictions.

The main attention is catching the big players, it's common knowledge in Dublin who they all are but it's catching their fingers in it that's the hard part.

In my area I know of one guy who has one of the civilians that work in the Garda station tipping him off about raids etc, even though he's 25 never worked and drives a Merc he has never being caught.

Dyr

I am pie wrote: »

Think that through. Fine, we arrest them all. Prisons are overcrowded to the extent that we are actually sanctioning early release. We haven't a pot to p1ss in, so you can rule out building all those new prisons we'd actually need.

Our prisons were overcrowded back when we were loaded too, so the lack of pots to p**s in was never the issue there. There's never been any real will to tackle the issue of junkieism. At least with the f**kers hanging out in the city centre the citizenry of this town can't ignore the problem like they did when only certain suburbs were swarming with junkies


The simple and obvious answer is decriminalize heroin. Never happen though.

Yillan

The only tangible solution is moving the methadone clinics. They were put in the city centre in order in integrate junkies and normies in the one place in the hope that the normies would somehow convince the junkies to change their ways. Sounds like a top idea, but it didn't work, so we need a Junkieville. If you build the methadone clinics out in ****sville, they will come. A town of junkies. Sounds like Underworld in Fallout 3. The buses won't run out there. It will essentially be lawless. A post office for them to collect their dole, a spar and a ratty apartment block. 'Recidivist heroin addict loses city centre council apartment and has to relocate out to the sticks'. Not going to be many hipster socialists protesting at that eviction.

They'll love it. It'll be like Dublin without all those pesky tourists, gardai and normies disturbing their day, but they'll retain all the drama and heroin that they like so much.

charlemont

Degsy wrote: »

A mate of mine who's a nurse tells me that the drugs to make heroin addicts actually stop have been available in this country for years.

However,the Govt being the Govt have opted instead for a taxpayer-funded,lifetime maintanance programme using methadone.

As some chemists and a lot of doctors make thier bread and butter through this programme you can just hear the vested interests at work once again.

Bingo. You got it in one, Kid..

gurramok

Birneybau wrote: »

Why should people feel the need to move to the suburbs?

I work on Abbey Street myself and am sick of these zombies.

The streets should be reclaimed by good honest folk and these fcukers should be dealt with. The city could be a vibrant, buzzing place if these creatures were taken from the streets.

Some day a real rain will come and wash the scum from the streets.

(God, I sound like a mentalist)

You have to ask? Why would anyone in their right mind live among literally hundreds of junkies?

Political will has not been there for about 30 years now, that's too long a time to have confidence it will change.

As you work on Abbey st, will you live there 24\7? Honest answer applies

Birneybau

gurramok wrote: »

You have to ask? Why would anyone in their right mind live among literally hundreds of junkies?

Political will has not been there for about 30 years now, that's too long a time to have confidence it will change.

As you work on Abbey st, will you live there 24\7? Honest answer applies

No, I wouldn't. What I meant was, people should have the choice to live safely in the city centre be it on Abbey Street or otherwise.

lima

Did anyone hear about the guy who died in the liffey yesterday? Apparently the guards were chasing 3 dealers and one either fell or jumped into the liffey, go stuck in the mud underneath and never came back up

Esel

carlmango11 wrote: »

Are the police powerless or apathetic?

charlemont wrote: »

They just don't care...

So, apathetic then?

mikemac1

CucaFace wrote: »

I assume the OP works near Marlboro St ?

Marketing works

starviewadams wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions,I'll contact a few TD's offices tomorrow and see what the response from them is.

Not sure which minister handles tourism but get on to them too
They might not care about locals and local businesses and ratepayers but they'll be motivated to look after tourists

Pretty Polly

Was walking on Dorset Street yesterday morning around 11am. Passed 2 junkies sitting on the red wall here http://g.co/maps/sbphk , with a needle and a few other bits and getting ready to inject themselves. They were making absolutely no effort to conceal what they were doing. Mountjoy is only 5 minutes down the road but sure that clearly didn't bother them.
I though about ringing the guards but realistically what were they going to do....tell them to move on, arrest them for possession??