Junkies everywhere? How many do you see a week.

MorningStar

I noticed a few of my friends kept talking about the amount of junkies about Dublin. As I don't work in the city centre I don't travel by where as many junkies hang out so maybe I am missing something.
Anway after a night out I realised that it was only the people from outside Dublin who were complaining. I have checked this out with a few people I know and we agreed that we don't particualrly register the sight of a junkie. I think maybe I see one a week and while I dislike it I don't fear them much and generally feel sorry for them.
How many do you see a week?

Third_Echelon

I live in the city centre and I usually have to deal with them on a daily basis.

Until we got the main door of our apartment building fixed, they'd just kick the door and it would open and they would sit on the stairwell and shoot up. Not a nice site when you arrive home after a hard days work!

There was always chocolate everywhere, which I couldn't understand at the start until I was told that they use the foil paper for 'cooking up' their heroin :eek:

The door was fixed and we haven't had any issues since. It only seems to be in the bad winter months as well, as its cold outside.

There is a 'stash' at the end of an alley outside our building as well, where they keep drugs and needles etc. Seen a few shooting up in broad daylight...

Its a pain in the @ss to be honest...

So to answer your question, Yes they do exist and there is a definite problem in the city centre. You wont see it in the suburbs to be honest...

Kernel

How do these culchies know they are junkies? Probably just those green fresh faced country boys coming up to the big smoke and mistaking a drunk / skanger for a junkie. Thanks in no small part to the newspapers. You don't see that many genuine junkies floating about, unless you go by a clinic or homeless shelter.

jay567

Not that many around, well go and stand on Butt Bridge (the bridge beside tara st station) i drive past it everyday at around 3.30pm and there are always at least 5 or 6 of them hangin around.

Kernel

jay567 wrote:

Not that many around, well go and stand on Butt Bridge (the bridge beside tara st station) i drive past it everyday at around 3.30pm and there are always at least 5 or 6 of them hangin around.

Yeah, that's because there's a clinic there..... Naturally.

MorningStar

Kernel wrote:

How do these culchies know they are junkies? Probably just those green fresh faced country boys coming up to the big smoke and mistaking a drunk / skanger for a junkie. Thanks in no small part to the newspapers. You don't see that many genuine junkies floating about, unless you go by a clinic or homeless shelter.

I didn't say they were culchies. In fairness the loudest complianers were and a few spanish friends agreed but other from other european cities just siad it was a problem but not that bad. I stayed in Athlone for a while and thought there were more junkies there than I normally saw

Kernel

MorningStar wrote:

Anway after a night out I realised that it was only the people from outside Dublin who were complaining. I

I assumed culchies from this. But a spaniard would be the same. They wouldn't know how bad our skangers or alcos can look! Anyone who sees over 27+ junkies in a week in dublin must be working in a soup kitchen or a methadone clinic!

Sarsfield

Kernel wrote:

Anyone who sees over 27+ junkies in a week in dublin must be working in a soup kitchen or a methadone clinic!

..or commuting on the 78A

rugbug86

i can get the 13/13A to college/town.
i live in drumcondra
it's near ballymun, where that afformentioned bus runs to.
i think its safe to say i see quite a few junkies in a week.
in fact i think a junkie lives on my road!

used to see more cos i used to go to the institute and as upmarket as leeson street is (he he) there's quite a few of 'em knockin about the place. esp in stephens green!

MorningStar

rugbug86 wrote:

i can get the 13/13A to college/town.
i live in drumcondra
it's near ballymun, where that afformentioned bus runs to.
i think its safe to say i see quite a few junkies in a week.
in fact i think a junkie lives on my road!

used to see more cos i used to go to the institute and as upmarket as leeson street is (he he) there's quite a few of 'em knockin about the place. esp in stephens green!

I wouldn't call Drumcondra near Ballymun but with the shared bus I guess you would meet some Ballymun locals. From my experience of junkies they tend to avoid rush hour on buses so I am surprised you see junkies contsitantly on your bus. It sounds like you might not be from Dublin and maybe the statement about not know a junkie from a skanger is true. I am no expert but to the untrained eye most skangers look like junkies.

rugbug86

ive lived in drumcondra all my life and i know the difference between a junkie and a skanger. and drumcondra is fairly near to ballymun, i can see the flats from my garden. i dont use the buses in rush hour, im a student! also i used to have a few friends from ballymun so i used to spend quite a bit of time up there.

MorningStar

rugbug86 wrote:

ive lived in drumcondra all my life and i know the difference between a junkie and a skanger. and drumcondra is fairly near to ballymun, i can see the flats from my garden. i dont use the buses in rush hour, im a student! also i used to have a few friends from ballymun so i used to spend quite a bit of time up there.

I can the Dublin Mountains from my garden and I don't live near them. There is at least one area between Drumcondra and Ballymun as far as I know. I wouldn't call them "near" to each other is a bit hazy but near to me means a casual walk.
Students don't go in for 9am anymore? I guess it depends on your classes.
If you see so many junkies I guess people are right to say there is so many of them. Some people just miss them.

JP Mulvano

I don't think anyone can claim that there isn't a problem with junkies/skangers in the city centre and I can certainly vouch that there are alot of junkies on the 13/13a bus. A guy actually cracked open a can of White lightening cider (or some other equally liver destroying beverage) and lit up a joint one morning beside me on a 13A, during he morning rush hour. He got some surprise after I accidentally knocked both of them out of his hands with my bag.

City centre obviously has a much worse problem. I live close enough to smithfield square and as another poster said I always see carmello bar wrappers on the ground. the funny thin is I never usually see that many junkies around that particular area, although I'm sure I just missing them.

Where else would people say they've see junkies or you think are the worst areas?

rugbug86

MorningStar wrote:

I can the Dublin Mountains from my garden and I don't live near them. There is at least one area between Drumcondra and Ballymun as far as I know. I wouldn't call them "near" to each other is a bit hazy but near to me means a casual walk.
Students don't go in for 9am anymore? I guess it depends on your classes.
If you see so many junkies I guess people are right to say there is so many of them. Some people just miss them.

its called glasnevin!

rugbug86

JP Mulvano wrote:

I live close enough to smithfield square and as another poster said I always see carmello bar wrappers on the ground. the funny thin is I never usually see that many junkies around that particular area, although I'm sure I just missing them.

y'no the recycling bins at the end of the square near the luas stop opposite the juvey court? nearly always guaranteed to see a few there

vibe666

how would you spot a junkie?

it might just be your spanish friends mistaking a pasty faced dubliner who's been out on the gargle on their way home.

a spanish junkie probably has a darker complexion than you're average dubliner anyway.

motrocco

JP Mulvano wrote:

Where else would people say they've see junkies or you think are the worst areas?

Thomas Street, after 12:30 you can count the 10-12 that are there until 3:30 when all the gear is sold off. Having been asked 3 times on my way back to work if 'I'm looking', from a 2pm dental appointment (quick checkup), started this very conversation in the office one day.

Everyone I worked with said you'd see 3 or more in the one day and usually the same suspects week in/week out.

2 girls have had phones snatched from them, in this area, in a year, from the same office.

Not good.

JP Mulvano

vibe666 wrote:

how would you spot a junkie?

it might just be your spanish friends mistaking a pasty faced dubliner who's been out on the gargle on their way home.

a spanish junkie probably has a darker complexion than you're average dubliner anyway.

There the ones thats walk slowly and repeat the same action/words many times while stuttering and twitching. So really not that difficult to spot no matter what nationality you are.

JP Mulvano

motrocco wrote:

Everyone I worked with said you'd see 3 or more in the one day and usually the same suspects week in/week out.

2 girls have had phones snatched form them in this area in a year from teh same office.

Not good.

Who's with me on organising annual vigilante day where the cops grant immunity/power to people for policing the street one day a year. Call it a spring cleaning if you like. Sure there'd be some mob mentality maybe some mistakes but overall I think I'd do some good, hahaha.

"I'm Batman!! would you like to ride with Batman?"

motrocco

JP Mulvano wrote:

Who's with me on organising annual vigilante day where the cops grant immunity/power to people for policing the street one day a year.

Then next we could have a drink driving weekend sponsored by a few drinks companies and JimMcDaid.

JP Mulvano

motrocco wrote:

Then next we could have a drink driving weekend sponsored by a few drinks companies and JimMcDaid.

Possibly coincide the vigiante day with this. 2 problems 1 solution!!

Dr. Loon

JP Mulvano wrote:

A guy actually cracked open a can of White lightening cider (or some other equally liver destroying beverage) and lit up a joint one morning beside me on a 13A, during he morning rush hour.

That's not a junkie, that's just a scum bag.

JP Mulvano

Dr. Loon wrote:

That's not a junkie, that's just a scum bag.

Scumbag/Junkie it's all a grey area.

MorningStar

JP Mulvano wrote:

Scumbag/Junkie it's all a grey area.

No it's not. That was a point made earlier. Somepeople don't know the difference and just assume people who are "anti-social" must be a junkie. I do doubt anybody actually sees 27+ different junkies a day in their normal walk of life.

dazberry

Kernel wrote:

Anyone who sees over 27+ junkies in a week in dublin must be working in a soup kitchen or a methadone clinic!

I work in neither, but as jay567 said, Butt bridge, or Tara St or over on the new board-walk on the North Quays, and I'd easily see 27+ over the course of a week if I go out for a walk at lunch time - probably within 2 or 3 days actually.

There's a drug clinic on Pearse St and one on Abbey St, so Tara St is in the middle more or less. The new Boardwalk was also very popular, but I believe there were a number of incidents there so the Gardai are targetting that area at the mo.

Problem is that Store St. Gardai look after the North inner city and Pearse St. Gardai on the south, so when there is a blitz from one side they just move to the other. I think Butt Bridge is like a state line .

D.

Sarsfield

In addition to my 78A experiences (I'm on flexi, so I often travel off-peak), I also swim at the pool in Townsend St. Guaranteed to see half-a-dozen on Pearse St on the way. And as for Saturday & Sunday mornings around 11am outside Tara St. station, I'd easily see 27+

Tha Gopher

I see about 30 before I make my breakfest. Fiends be linin up outside my flat waitin for their mornin lift Gotta pay the rent somehow eh?

Well, there are 12,000 odd junkies in Dublin, the majority living in the inner city, with nearly all the rest in Tallaght, Blanch, Ballyfermot, Clondalkin, Finglas/Ballymun etc so technically 1% of people walking down O`Connell Street should be one. Not every junkie is thin, hungry looking, wide eyed, covered in pock marks on their face, wearing tracksuit lines that havent been sold in 5 years.....just an awful lot of them. There would be some, probably the newer users, interested in keeping their tracksuits clean. I suppose on an average day on town you might see half a dozen obvious boyos on gear. Of course, alot of them are banned from much of the shops by security men who know them for robbing previously, hence why it isnt actually 1% of people yid see. Think about it, Blanch has a heroin problem but yid see relatively few obvious junkies in the centre. Im sure Tallaght /the square is the same

Still, yid wonder how kids are still trying heroin seein all the junkies as they grow up. In many of the rouger hoods in the US, new uptake of crack and heroin by teenagers is falling because of the loser rep that users have gained

LegacyUser

Junkie.......picture 1

Scumbag...picture 2

rugbug86

pic 1 cud just b scum...
junkies are the ones who have 12 sugars in their micky d's tea

Kernel

Tha Gopher wrote:

Well, there are 12,000 odd junkies in Dublin, the majority living in the inner city, with nearly all the rest in Tallaght, Blanch, Ballyfermot, Clondalkin, Finglas/Ballymun etc so technically 1% of people walking down O`Connell Street should be one.

I find that figure seems a little high. According to the Eastern Healthboard there are *estimated* to be 15,000 heroin users in all of Ireland (in 2001). Taking into account the main cities, where we know there is also a heroin problem, you'll see that the numbers don't add up.

It's very difficult to find any data from all the ****ty Irish government bodies, and I can't view pdf files in work, but I think the 12,000 / 13,000 figure is scaremongering. Heroin use in the inner city is also nowhere near as bad as it once was.

Edit: Actually, I have been thinking about the population of Dublin, and I'm thinking maybe 12/13,000 could be right.. that's an awful lot of junkies tho.

MorningStar

Kernel wrote:

Edit: Actually, I have been thinking about the population of Dublin, and I'm thinking maybe 12/13,000 could be right.. that's an awful lot of junkies tho.

I don't know I still thinks that ratio sounds wrong. Athlone has a heroine problem and so does Limerick and I would guess Cork and Galway probably have a problem too. I know I read about junkies in Donegal too.