Junkies on O'Connell St and sorrounding area *READ MOD NOTE POST #1 AND #11*

Flippyfloppy

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

It's not. Take the clinics out of the city center and that will change things massively. We should not be filtering every junkie in to the center of the city. This is the consequence of that.

And put them where? The suburbs?? Local gps??

sabat

I don't think the problem is primarily due to local addicts-why would you stand around the streets out of your head when you've got a house closeby? It's more than a coincidence that the major areas for them congregating- Marlborough St, Aston Quay etc- also happen to be where many buses from deprived suburbs terminate.

jamesbondings

I see slow progress in the city centre but it only pushes it out further. Lower drumcondra Rd is worsening in a major way.

The problem in my opinion is a serious lack of any type of garda presence on the front line. I never see gardai on the beat anymore and I don't think the problem can be tackled without that.

RoyalCelt

I fully agree that it's chronic the number of junkies around the city center but towns round the country are shocking bad. My job means I move around a lot and places like Cork city, Waterford City, Drogheda, Limerick and a few places in the mid lands are reaching breaking point. I'm sure there are many other places just as bad but it's a serious nation wide problem unfortunately.

italodisco

jamesbondings wrote: »

I see slow progress in the city centre but it only pushes it out further. Lower drumcondra Rd is worsening in a major way.

The problem in my opinion is a serious lack of any type of garda presence on the front line. I never see gardai on the beat anymore and I don't think the problem can be tackled without that.

Lower Drumcondra road is one of the most obvious examples ....all those rotten Russian/eastern euro junkies hanging around near apache pizza and spar .

Openly meet up with an Irish man on a pushbike that passes on gear for them to sell , in front of cameras cars pedestrians but the gardai aren't bothered .

That's the problem

Boldberry

If they were to prosecute them, they would have nowhere to put them all. I don't see a solution to this without a serious investment in treatment facilties and prisons for those who won't get clean.

vidor

Why would you put an addict in prison?

Boldberry

vidor wrote: »

Why would you put an addict in prison?

Prisons are full of them because some commit crimes to feed their crimes. I would have thought that was obvious.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Boldberry wrote: »

Prisons are full of them because some commit crimes to feed their crimes. I would have thought that was obvious.

You don't really get how justice works do you?.

Warper

They need to be cleared out of the city centre thats for sure. It is the capital of Ireland hence all the tourists get off in the centre. No easy solution here but they should not be the first point of contact for a tourist.

Boldberry

Nixon Huge Stingray wrote: »

You don't really get how justice works do you?.

I think you misunderstood my earlier post, I don't believe in throwing addicts into prison but the treatment that's on offer in this country is woefully inadequate. Without massive investment into treatment of addicts abc recovering addicts, I can't see many of them being able to prove their situation.

chopper6

Boldberry wrote: »

I think you misunderstood my earlier post, I don't believe in throwing addicts into prison but the treatment that's on offer in this country is woefully inadequate. Without massive investment into treatment of addicts abc recovering addicts, I can't see many of them being able to prove their situation.

To be honest my cup of human kindness is less than full with regard to some of these people.

The amount of money that they're already costing the taxpayer is staggering and you're proposing "massive investment" so they can improve thier lot?

Ithink the only massive investment there needs to be in relation to this problem is removing them from the streets and locking them up...they can be put into dry out camps and let them detox once and for all instead of mantaining them on methadone forever.

Sure it'll be tough for them but whats the alternative? die on the streets or in prison?

jimmii

Aard wrote: »

City centre businesses identify this as a major issue, and act to clean up (literally as well as figuratively) after the junkies through the Dublin City Business Improvement District. They've effectively taken into their own hands an issue that the City Council has been dragging its heels on.

I go to the BID meetings and it comes up every time. They have been able to get some of the places the addicts go to closed down there was one at the end of our street they had shut and it made a noticeable difference but then another just opens around the corner. BID do as much as they can but their hands are tied.

jimmii

Warper wrote: »

They need to be cleared out of the city centre thats for sure. It is the capital of Ireland hence all the tourists get off in the centre. No easy solution here but they should not be the first point of contact for a tourist.

The only place I have ever been that has such a public drug problem was street kids in Nairobi with glue. It seems to have gone so far that no one wants to touch it in the end someone is going to just take a hardline approach to clear it up but no one has the guts to take it on as they know its probably political suicide.

Aard

jimmii wrote: »

I go to the BID meetings and it comes up every time. They have been able to get some of the places the addicts go to closed down there was one at the end of our street they had shut and it made a noticeable difference but then another just opens around the corner. BID do as much as they can but their hands are tied.

By "places the addicts go to", do you mean the hostels or the treatment centres?

jimmii

Aard wrote: »

By "places the addicts go to", do you mean the hostels or the treatment centres?

I am not sure it was merely referred to as the place they went to! I would hope it was a treatment centre as obviously not all homeless people are addicts and don't like the idea of homeless people just being kicked out onto the street to appease local business.

Aard

I think you might be talking about Cedar House, in which case it's an emergency hostel.

The problem as far as businesses are concerned is not necessarily that the facilities are there, but it's their concentration.

jimmii

For sure the one that closed was at the end but there is another bang in the middle of the street across from where we are located. They normally just seem to line up waiting to be let in but they have apparently caused some trouble in the past and there was one night when they ripped up all the cardboard we had put out just to get one particularly large box there was cardboard all over the place and the other businesses around us weren't too impressed with us! Not much we could do about that really! Luckily we have a reasonable Garda presence in the area but that may well be due to the fact that these places are there in the first place.

corner of hells

Aard wrote: »

I think you might be talking about Cedar House, in which case it's an emergency hostel.

The problem as far as businesses are concerned is not necessarily that the facilities are there, but it's their concentration.

jimmii wrote: »

For sure the one that closed was at the end but there is another bang in the middle of the street across from where we are located. They normally just seem to line up waiting to be let in but they have apparently caused some trouble in the past and there was one night when they ripped up all the cardboard we had put out just to get one particularly large box there was cardboard all over the place and the other businesses around us weren't too impressed with us! Not much we could do about that really! Luckily we have a reasonable Garda presence in the area but that may well be due to the fact that these places are there in the first place.

Cedar House is still open.Its status is 24Hour , one night only and Winter cold weather initiave.

Boldberry

chopper6 wrote: »

To be honest my cup of human kindness is less than full with regard to some of these people.

The amount of money that they're already costing the taxpayer is staggering and you're proposing "massive investment" so they can improve thier lot?

Ithink the only massive investment there needs to be in relation to this problem is removing them from the streets and locking them up...they can be put into dry out camps and let them detox once and for all instead of mantaining them on methadone forever.

Sure it'll be tough for them but whats the alternative? die on the streets or in prison?

So setting up dry out camps for addicts wouldn't be a massive investment, do you know how much drug detox and rehab bed costs? There aren't any quick fixes to this problem and even if there was it wouldn't come cheap.

VMur

There was a mention in amongst the thread concerning the telephone boxes just infront of Carroll's and Londis on Westmoreland Street. They were removed last week. I witnessed a crowd of junkies, fighting over a pool of vomit ...bending down and picking out what I can only imagine were drugs and swallowing them. There is one dealer who is as obvious by his overweight belly and his corpse like hangers on that resemble the scary creatures from Game of Thrones.

I go on a daily basis from pity to anger, its a complex issue but at times, I think there has to come a time when someone says...look it's not ok...drug addiction has to start at the individuals themselves. There has to be personal responsibility but if what this thread says that there has been a greater Garda crackdown in this area is true, then fantastic but my journey on foot into work I have seen from what seems like the rats have been let out of the sewers as that's what these people have are resembling. We the ordinary people of the city look on with fear.....

drumswan

jimmii wrote: »

The only place I have ever been that has such a public drug problem was street kids in Nairobi with glue.

Ive seen much worse in SF, Toronto and Victoria, BC. Wait until crack becomes more widespread than it is here, that will be fun.

jimmii

drumswan wrote: »

Ive seen much worse in SF, Toronto and Victoria, BC. Wait until crack becomes more widespread than it is here, that will be fun.

Hopefully they figure out a way to manage it before then so!

jimmii

Mr.S wrote: »

I would hope that treatment clinics OR hostels wouldn't be shut down because business owners don't like them in their area :eek:

True! Makes it hard to do business though at the same time so the balance needs to be right.

davepatr07

Dublin has it's problems with junkies though I've seen worse. A walk through Main and Hastings near Vancouver's Chinatown is like walking through land of the dead. BC Victoria I was asked a few times on the street if I wanted "BC Bud"

Aard

Vancouver and Oslo are the cities that stick out for me as having the most shocking drug problems. Dublin's doesn't appear too bad in comparison.

Boldberry

Oslo is terrible, I mentioned a park where they all hang out to a local and he said 'oh yea, but they all die out in winter'.

Ole Rodrigo

Other cities that have had problems all seem to have allocated a particular place for hostels and medical treatment, rather than have it dispersed amongst the general public. Maybe it has to reach a critical mass before the authorities will consider such a solution here.

I just came up the quays by the famine statues were amongst a group of junkies ( they tend to hang out by the old iron cargo frames ) two were shooting up and a few more where trying to give some tourists who had stopped to look at the statues a lesson in Irish history. Of all the bizarre sights I have seen over the years in the city center, that takes the biscuit.

The Hill Billy

Christ! Oslo was a shocker for me. Imagine dealers & hookers on every street corner along Grafton Street (never mind OCS) at all hours of the day.

strandroad

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Christ! Oslo was a shocker for me. Imagine dealers & hookers on every street corner along Grafton Street (never mind OCS) at all hours of the day.

Seriously? I haven't been, but my friends were saying it's the most boring regular place ever!