The Other Pandemic - Cocaine

MacronvFrugals

I recommend this book for a look at some horror stories of coke use in Ireland, it’s stories taken from patients in the Rutland centre in South Dublin.

It was written at the height of the last boom and imo things are much worse today!

B.A._Baracus

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117642983#Comment_117642983

I want you to read this bit carefully... I don't give a flying f**k what you think. I know what you are. So go off on a mad one with some other ejjit. I wont be the one.

Cheers.

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117643086#Comment_117643086

Intellectual, articulate and factual consensus right there, mate. The only eejit here is you - you proved it yourself (saved me the bother lol)

Cheers

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641951#Comment_117641951

Excellent post.

By legalising drugs, we treat the people affected by them as healthcare patients (it’s ironic considering the title of the thread.)

in doing so, they are not integrated back into society until they are helped. Portugal is the best example and Norway have since followed suit.

These people are sick and they should be helped/treated. It took this country many years to adjust the stigma related to mental health and we still don’t fund it or barely even recognise it as health issue. It will be a long time before we recognise drug addiction as the same, not all drug addicts are scumbags. It’s a disgrace for people to refer to them as that without fully understanding the root cause of the issue and accepting our approach via prohibition is only going to make it worse.

buried

B.A._Baracus

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117643232#Comment_117643232

Ok.

GNWoodd

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641862#Comment_117641862

What I find amazing is the difference in how various wrongs are treated by the law . Middle aged men and women drinking a few pints in a controlled environment and driving home afterwards results in the law being changed to disqualify a driver even marginally over the limit .

Yet last nights programme showed fixes of coke or heroin being extracted from a dealers nether regions and being sold in broad daylight while those tasked with law enforcement cycle by and do nothing

You couldn’t make it up

Potential-Monke

What I find amazing is how everyone is a legal expert when it comes to these things. Example above, drugs being sold and Gardai cycling by and doing nothing. No mention of probable cause backed up by hard evidence. Every Garda knows who's selling, but proving it is another thing. The days of randomly searching someone who looks like they could be dealing are gone, thanks to successful discriminatory cases changing the law (not specifically in Ireland, but we copy others). And then it goes into the roundabout argument that involved more guards for somehow less money, and on.

If the law was that easy to enforce, it would be done. Fact is, the law is making it harder and harder to secure convictions. Ireland has gone a bit too far on the ridiculous side that forgetting to say "a public place" after "O'Connell Street, Dublin" could cause a cause to be thrown out. People are too caught up with the Hollywood idealization of how investigations legally work.

dartboardio

Ah.. Cocaine. An awful habit, or addiction to have.

To those saying only scumbags take it, open your eyes a little bit.

Cocaine is an expensive drug, in fact any of my peers or friends over the years who liked it a bit more than the odd night out and developed addictions were all quite well off people with parents that had high paying jobs, and lived in big houses, studied physics or medicine etc in college, you get the idea...

However like any drug, or habit, it's all down to environment. It's too easy to get caught up hanging around with the same people week in week out, going on the same types of nights out where they become dependent on getting an oul bag or two rather than enjoying a few drinks, I've been there myself but luckily don't really have an addictive personality.

I've seen people ruined by it, and have had a cousin who's a great guy, extremely intelligent but kept in with the same crowd who all are borderline coke addicts, and have been doing the same thing for years.

He was even selling large amounts of it at one stage to keep up his habit and I remember him telling me on a night out one time he was really struggling, and he kept finding himself taking it alone in his bedroom after a night out staring at the ceiling.

He eventually bit the bullet and moved away to central Europe to go to college, no longer associating with that lifestyle or those friends, while the friends are still doing the same thing day in day out.

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117644844#Comment_117644844

The people referring to cocaine users as scumbags don’t deserve any sort of acknowledgment or reasoning - it’s simply untrue.

As you correctly mentioned, cocaine is an expensive drug and it’s increase in usage is in the middle to upper class of individuals.

I work in the tech sector and it is rampant. In fact my previous employer (a very well known tech company with offices on the canal,) hired most academics graduating from the likes of UCD, TCD etc - all young people from fairly decent backgrounds with private education. These specific individuals in my opinion are the biggest users of it, they have money, they see cocaine as a “status drug,” if you use it - you are well off.

I’ve seen people in that professional aspect lose the run of themselves on it but you can nearly tell who these people will be without even knowing they have an issue. Generally compulsive individuals and they tend to find one another which ultimately leads to the addiction in circles that you reference.

At my first xmas party with said company, I was offered cocaine by a Vice President (who managed an org/dept of between 300-400 people,) i thought it was a joke at first but I came to realise that they all use it.

GNWoodd

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117644819#Comment_117644819

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117644819#Comment_117644819

Then what were the Gardaí doing there in the first place ? Cycling past a known crime scene , doing nothing , and being laughed at ? Could they not at least make it difficult for those dealing ?

They have plenty of resources to drive around rural areas at night trying to catch a few motorists that might have drank a few pints .

mikethecop

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117645273#Comment_117645273

ya you always see large numbers of well resourced gardai wandering country lanes in high end flashy cars and with massive state and legal support just to arrest poor old uncle jim who had two pints.

Man who had 18 callers to his home for cocaine while gardaí were searching it avoids jail - Independent.ie

career criminal caught with drugs money and had previous for drugs but gets off scot free thanks to the legal aid you paid for

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117645983#Comment_117645983

Explain to me.

Do you think this individual in question would come out of prison better or worse?

mikethecop

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117646147#Comment_117646147

i dont care if he does he is 42 and has been a criminal all his life.

at this stage its about protecting other people from him , and not just his drug dealing enterprises

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117646170#Comment_117646170

”protecting other people from him,” won’t be achieved by putting someone like him in prison mate. The demand is there, someone will always supply it

the amount he was carrying too is buttons and likely seen as a waste of jail space. Fair enough it’s not right to have someone like him on the streets but removing him from it won’t fix the issue

In a way it’s a positive approach by the Garda, decriminalisation is the only way.

mohawk

I find the cokeheads in the local to be a pain in the arse. The mix of alcohol and cocaine doesn’t seem to suit many. Whole friend groups use it and go to bathroom in numbers to get high.

Personally, I have never done it. What assurances do I have if what’s in it and that it’s not contaminated. Yeah I drink when I go out, but the drinks industry is regulated. I know what I am getting

Perhaps, if it wasn’t illegal there could be places for the cocaine users to go and get high there and leave rest of us enjoy a couple drinks in the pub

The war on drugs has massively failed. However, my other reason for not trying it is I wouldn’t want to give the career criminals a cent of my money. You know the type getting young lads to do the dirty work for them, ordering murders, destroying their communities etc.

TefalBrain

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641951#Comment_117641951

Cocaine users don't tend to be the most intelligent in fairness. "Here's some white powder that may have made it's way into the country in someone's arse passage" "Oh yeah sound man that sounds deadly"

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117648720#Comment_117648720

And this is why we need to demystify the social imaginary that demonizes the chemically dependent, being thus important to develop public policies with actions focused on health, prevention, information and combat to stigma.

stigma does not help the vulnerable get better. You don’t know what people are going through that lead them to using drugs.

mikethecop

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117646205#Comment_117646205

Aw right so you know what other crimes he has committed do ya ? what all those other convictions are for ?

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117649144#Comment_117649144

More than 70% of substance dependant people have suffered severe trauma in life - some may have been abused, raped etc

Until you have experienced such horrific ordeals or drama you cannot comment on people who are self medicating them because the state has failed.

Its not an excuse for criminality, these people are sick and in many countries around the world treated as patients. We treat them as criminals, lock them up and they come out worse - many now the state has just given up on that basis?

The only fix is decriminalisation.

mikethecop

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117649212#Comment_117649212

so you haven't a clue then

you could have just said that you know

making excuses for criminals instead of protecting victims is one of the reasons for the mess we are in with these sort of people

Strumms

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117649212#Comment_117649212

So if I have had childhood trauma, that can be used as an excuse for me to become a criminal ?

Lots of people suffer trauma in their lives, yet don’t go around excusing criminal behaviors because of historical problems....

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117651095#Comment_117651095

Nope. Never said that.

You are implying that drug users are criminals. Many in this thread have called cocaine users “scumbags,” it’s idiotic and very close minded.

You are missing the point and reaffirming what I am saying.

We view drug users or small time dealers are criminals, it’s proven in other countries that have decriminalised drugs that better progress can be made to tackling to drug use by treating users as “patients” and not “criminals.”

Arrest this guy and he will not come out better - it amplifies the issue, doesn’t fix it.

Cheers

Strumms

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117652868#Comment_117652868

If you break the law you have committed a crime.

use cocaine, purchase cocaine, or sell cocaine it’s a crime.

you are supporting not only the welfare of criminals but the welfare of gangsters, a bunch that would kill, damage, assault and maim those who oppose them or interfere with their racket.

drug addiction is an illness.

simply using, purchasing, possessing, selling isn’t. Crimes.

Pinoy adventure

crack cocaine is also on the rise big time,which is far worse

gary550

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117653211#Comment_117653211

Crack use has been an emerging issue in some parts since around 2018/2019 I think and is really becoming a big problem now especially in working class area's.

Unlike a lot of other places Ireland seemed to have avoided it but I don't think its going anywhere anytime soon.

Crack is another beast altogether

Relax brah

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117653054#Comment_117653054

We pay for the treatment in the same manner that we pay for alcoholics who need help. Alcohol is equally a drug, again, as I’ve already suggested - that a look at what happened when alcohol was made illegal. By offering counselling, investing in education, working on changing the stigma for drug addicts will help interject addiction early - it’s not about sending all addictions to the Betty ford clinic ffs.

Decriminalisation enables us to support these people and the fact of the matter is that it works. So argue it all you want, the fact that you now arguing the cost to the state reinforces the point that you are completely oblivious to this matter.

What you're really saying here with those posts is decriminalisation makes it so fella's like yourself won't risk a conviction buying and possessing their bags for a Saturday night.

A Garda usually wouldn't waste his time in most cases arresting or seeking a prosecution of a junkie for simple possession. They want the easy ones who get their names reported in the local paper and a fine or payment to the court poor box.

Also there is a massive difference between alcoholism and addiction to cocaine.

Potential-Monke

[quote]They want the easy ones who get their names reported in the local paper and a fine or payment to the court poor box.[/quote]

You have proof of this, yeah? Or is it just another biased negative view based on bad personal encounters and hearsay stories?

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117654443#Comment_117654443

Local rag every other week and a brother on the force.

Is there a positive personal encounter with someone on coke ?????? Maybe if you're on it?

EDIT: Reading again you're suggesting I have an issue with the Gardaí. I don't, read above.

Relax brah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117654400#Comment_117654400

Nope you’re wrong.

Personally on the rare occasion I have done it, I’ve never felt any different. It’s very obvious in pubs that people are in and out of bathrooms doing it. Pub security and owners seem to be turning a blind eye, it’s that blatantly obvious they could do something about it if they really wanted to.

Secondly, there should be no difference in how we treat people with substance abuse. If you want to be so narrow minded than maybe compare to alcohol addiction treatment - should be people dependent on wine be treated any different than a person dependant on whiskey?

Its a very narrow minded view on things.

I love how people think this is a new phenomenon.

During the absolute boom of the early 2000s the country was awash with actual cash and not the debt cash of 2007.

Every bar person or bouncer could tell you that all party pubs and nightclubs were riddled with the stuff.

It was very very common amongst women. Far fewer female bouncers, back then, so less capacity to search the bathrooms. The amount of women who used to come out of toilets with their drink straws covered with white powder, at one end, was frightening. And the fact that they were brazen enough to come out before dipping the straw in their drink.

Any time there's enough spare cash there will be a coke spike.

Never done,likely never will (some health issues)

But comments saying its only scum and knackers doing it,are so far out of touch with reality and who is actually doing it,its disturbing (id like to see all members of the dail subjected to a random drug test😅)

Id a good few mates growing up,what done it,got in well over their heads...one of whoms family have spent the equilivalent of a small mortgage every month paying off debts for last few years,aswell as aftrr costing him a small farm and about e120K inheritance

Its not a harmless drug for those who it takes hold of,and destroys families....no different to drink or gambling in that sense really....

.i doubt it will ever be legalised as eventually it would end up as gaurds/bailiffs having to collect drug debts and it would us a laughing stock of a country

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117658250#Comment_117658250

People with a dependency on alcohol haven’t broken any laws.

people who use illegal drugs have, people who sell them have. To equate them as you have is seriously disingenuous, laughable.

You KNOW on purchasing cocaine it’s illegal, you KNOW there is zero quality control, you KNOW it’s more addictive then alcohol, you KNOW it’s more unhealthy. You KNOW it’s funding seriously violent criminals.

Relax brah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117658885#Comment_117658885

You KNOW Decriminalisation means it is not illegal hence why I am suggesting it? lol

You sure you ain’t smoking that sh*t yourself?

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117659861#Comment_117659861

Yep, it’s not just about criminality as I’ve said if you read what I have said... health and other issues come into play and they are serious... serious consequences for the person and the state... .. but you don’t want to reason or debate :) you just prefer to try and be a bit of an insult merchant which is fine. :)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058199228/the-other-pandemic-cocaine

Better cocaine than meth (shorter half life).

It sucks but we'll figure it out.

It's apparently glamourized to do drugs, same as it was glamourized to be trashy when we were in high school.

I think that's a large part of the issue.

Potential-Monke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117654530#Comment_117654530

OK, and the local rag and your brothers stories account for all incidents the Gardai deal with? Every single one of them taking the easy option and only doing the local lad with an easy fine? Who did all the work in outlined in the 2019 report if all they were doing was giving handy fines to local lads?

It did read like you had something against them though. So I apologise for assuming that. I've also had plenty of encounters with people on cocaine that weren't negative. I'd also assume that the negative events by people on coke is far, far lower than the total number of people taking it and not causing hassle. Same with every drug. Otherwise, every single person who drinks alcohol is an anti-social violent scumbag. Which we know isn't the case.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117665423#Comment_117665423

Just my experience over the years with those on it in our company, seemed to bring out the arse hole in them more often than not. Though I take your point maybe it's like booze and the old line about there being two types of people in this country. Those who drink and those who drink but shouldn't.

chrissb8

I have seen people from all backgrounds, all walks of life do cocaine. It's reductive to say they are scum because they consume it. In the consumption of a lot of goods, you could trace back their origin to morally bankrupt countries whose governments are complicit in many atrocities (think oil).

That's not to say it's fine to consume cocaine and eschew the concerns of what the impact is within the drug trade, and the violence intertwined with it. But it's narrow minded to think one is morally superior because they don't partake in cocaine or other drugs. There are a lot of scummy trades in the world, some legal and some not.

That isn't to compare one to the other, but really what I'm trying to drive at is, don't morally peacock when in reality we're all supporting something terrible in our consumption habits.

joseywhales

If we don't think the state should have to pay for the incarceration or treatment of a drug addict then there are two choices. Freedom or death. So which is being proposed? It's either freedom, incarceration/some other punishment, treatment or death. So which should it be?

Isn't addiction officially considered a mental illness? Also it is a physical illness for some addictions. Which of the four : freedom,punishment,treatment or death. Is the best way to deal with physical and mental illness? Taking cost and human rights into account.

mikethecop

Accused told gardaí he 'never hit a woman in his life' (rte.ie)

"In his second interview with gardaí, the accused said he was sorry that he gave Nadine "a slap" and admitted he needed "a bit of help" for his drug-use."

another fine example of the poor me nothing is my fault everything is the drugs

some people are just bad and just drugs as an excuse of that

Jequ0n

Great example. not a single mention of coke, but drink is mentioned throughout the article.

TefalBrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117658872#Comment_117658872

The fact they are doing it makes them scum. Make no mistake about it these knackers are directly responsible for people having their heads chopped off by cartels, children been thrown into baths of acid in front of their parents etc in cartel land.. If they didn't buy it the problem wouldn't exist.

Cocaine users can laugh it off all they want but they have blood on their hands, they are scum.

Tomaldo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117671934#Comment_117671934

If u are so concerned about decapitations and acid murders of children, why don't you want legalization to happen immediately instead of lecturing coke-users on their so-called lack of morality. Attitudes like that thought the Magdelene Laundries were a good idea, just a different type of fun they condemn. It's their money, their bodies, their choice, it doesn't affect you or anybody else, it's not like murder, rape or burglary etc.

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117630590#Comment_117630590

If you are popular, you can't be a scumbag?? Weird logic. And thats Mick Jagger who "seduced" (her words) 15 year old Rae Dawn??

chicorytip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117658885#Comment_117658885

Alcoholics have an equal propensity to break the law as those who consume so-called class A drugs. Drink driving, public order offences, theft or fraud, abuse of a partner ,spouse or children. Alcohol, by it's very nature, is the most easily available and widely consumed drug in society and the one most likely to be abused. How many of us would have the wherewithal to actually go out and find cocaine to buy this minute? There is an off licence on every street corner but drug dealers are never going to openly advertise their services.

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117811467#Comment_117811467

That is a very naive post. Drop me in any populated area in Ireland and I'll have a bag of coke ordered within 20/30 minutes. I don't do it myself, but it's pretty much available everywhere.

Tomaldo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117810777#Comment_117810777

Judging by the millions who paid good money to watch The Stones, it's obvious many many people don't/didn't think he's a scumbag. The same with Elvis who seduced Priscilla when she was 14. In contrast Gary Glitter isn't held in such high esteem. I'm not saying it was right but attitudes were different then. I heard Dr Ciara Kelly (who is 50) say she got a job as a lounge-girl when she was in 2nd year and it was quite common for men 40/50 years old to pinch her ass, she said she hated it but it seemed to be accepted. Surely that wouldn't be tolerated these days?