The Bad Batch of Drugs - Does UCD have a drug problem?

electrictrad

Saw this is the news recently about a bad batch of drugs hospitalising a few of our fellow students:

http://www.thejournal.ie/students-war-1465503-May2014/
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/captain-america-lsd-drugs-linked-to-ucd-cases-seized-1.1797230
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/warning-on-bad-drugs-batch-after-ucd-students-are-hospitalised-1.1795997

Just wondering what do people know. (Obviously no names), but what is the drug culture actually like in UCD? I've been here 3 solid years; I've been in nearly every nightclub, I've lived on campus, I've been in some very social clubs and societies, and I've never seen anything like it; I've never been offered drugs, I've never seen people use them (besides alcohol, which is everywhere). Is it just my circles that seem to have avoided it? Is it bad in certain societies or within certain faculties or year groups?

Feel free to add "I've heard" or "I've been told that" or "A friend of mine had a friend that" before any posts; I don't want to cause any legal issues here; this is very much a "scale-of-the-problem" post.

WildRosie

Talking to a few people in my class at the exams today who live on campus and they didn't seem at all surprised by what's happened and knew exactly who was involved (named names and all). I would hope (perhaps naively), that given our faculty that they would stay away from this kind of thing. From talking to them, it seemed to be fairly rampant...like it's no big deal. I suppose as a mature student this kinda surprised me. Made me feel a bit old really

TimeToShine

Depends on who you know really but it's very easily obtainable.

I wouldn't call it a problem though.

pancake_tuesday

Acid's not exactly easy to get or overly popular so quite surprised at this. Any idea what year they're in?

TimeToShine

Ah it's around if you do a bit of digging.

It looks to me like a few lads just took it and freaked out. It said they were admitted exhibiting "erratic behaviour" and then discharged the next day. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a regular batch that a few people had a bad reaction to. One of them was causing trouble outside a nightclub so it makes sense that these lads just pushed it too much and should have stayed at home. It's definitely a bad idea to take it for the first time and not stay indoors.

usersame

LSD and any upper is an extremely bad combo, even if you've taken LSD a few times before you'd be best avoiding that. Taking that combo for the first time and being on Grafton Street is my idea of hell.

[Jackass]

UCD definitely doesn't have a drug problem. I would think it's safe to assume that in almost every university in the western world there's a fair few illicit drugs floating around and I'd say about half of people of student age experiment with said drugs to varying extent during their time as students.

I'm a bit older than most UCD students, but would see that as a right of passage.

The problem is lack of knowledge of drugs perhaps, it might sound funny, but perhaps an "Enjoy drugs responsibly" campaign could do wonders! A non-judgemental, non-dictating leaflet to be circulated around universities in future giving information on dangers of mixing certain drugs and mixing alcohol with drugs and information on services for people who might form a problem with drugs.

There's no point on focusing on the illegality of it (as that's half the fun) and there's no point on a blanket health warning of "Drugs are bad, mmmmkay?" ... it's going to happen either way, so why not just provide user information to avoid any tragic outcomes.

ironclaw

Would consider myself fairly savvy but I've never seen it offered or taken whilst in Dublin. Contrast that to the continent or Ibiza and its literally handed out for free.

hfallada

You can find drugs anywhere in Dublin. If you look, you'll find it in any club within a few mins. Temple bar always strinks of weed. You will have people offering pretty any drug you want in temple bar at most of the ATM's.

Drug use is high among any students in western world. Like at any universities in the us you will drug use. Although it's very strange to see LSD use even among college students. I would only call it a problem if people were addicted to it. But rens of thousands of people take drugs in Ireland with no issues everyday

Kiltennel

I'd second Jackass's point. A campaign of safe drug use should really be launched, there seems to be an ever growing amount of people right now taking pills regularly enough (1-3 times a month) which can have serious damage if done on an on-going basis. You shouldn't be taking pills more than once every 3 months at a minimum to allow your brain to recover after use yet very few know this. The fact that these people combined a hallucinogenic, with an upper, under the influence of alcohol as well I'd assume on Grafton street shows a serious lack of knowledge.