Cocaine Destroying Rural Ireland

We've established that you know nothing, which is why I was asking a different poster.

No experience with crack (and don't want any) but 50 a gram is ridiculously cheap. I'd be suspicious about the quality at that rate.

"Initial preliminary estimates put the average daily consumption of cocaine to be in the order of 100 milligrams per 1,000 people per day"

"The European Union has undertaken an analysis of wastewater from a number of locations throughout Europe. The findings from 2023 show weekday mean values for Athens to be 137mg/1000people/day, Vilnius at 104mg/1000people/day, Helsinki at 189mg/1000people/day and Krakow at 65mg/1000people/day."

The problem with heroin is that you build up a tolerance quickly, meaning you need more and bigger doses to get the same high as before, and thus you get closer to the overdose point.

This is why I drug dealers give the first dose cheaply or even free and it;s these guys I'd argue are the ones that people are getting into debts with.

I know a lot of people who do a lot of drugs and seen a lot of pricelists with a lot of offers on Telegram groups, but I've seen anyone even offer heroin. Recereational users just don't touch it.

Now have you actually checked this one to see if it contains the word "cocaine" in it before you actually posted it?

In other words, no; no you haven't.

And I've already pointed out that you don't care about rural communities because you're not prepared to consider the root causes turning people to said drugs, that you've accepted you know nothing drugs, and that you're just shitposting - and you haven't actually contested any of this.

Well, I haven't lived in Ireland for 15 years and I've never lived in rural Ireland - so I'm not really in a position to say, but until these causes are identified linking to news headlines with no meaningful commentary is, as I said, shitposting.

For me, my mental health issues were caused by boredom, living in a repititive socially conservative environment (by socially conservative, I mean everything revolving around sport, soap operas and pubs) - but if you tried and bring this up, people shot you down in seconds. I tried to get people to do things like hiking, paintball and a few others things, but people were only interested in drinking (which is just abusing a legal drug - and yet no one sees that as an issue. Odd….)

Dublin 40 years ago was a massively different place than rural Ireland now - a lot of the city was in economic depression.

Now whether any of this is relevant to modern day rural ireland, I have no idea - which is why I was asking the poster - but I'm pretty sure he was no idea either and no interest in finding out.

Getting addicted to a drug, but it legal or illegal is a symtom of a deeper cause of a more serious underlying issue.

Cocaine use, crazy how common-place it is.

A friend of mine was in his local when lads came in after at local GAA meetup.

After a few pints out comes the powder and the lads were not-so-covertly taking sniffs.

Same thing with a work do I was at.

All very casual and accepted now.

I try not to be around people when they're taking it, such an obnoxious drug.

The arrogant ultra-confidence followed quickly by the emotional **** talk.

so, will his next post be a logical and informed response to this or a trolly **** post of a news headline that has the word "drug" in it but not the word "cocaine"? My money's on the latter…

I can't wait for the tedious 'so you want to get rid of drugs? Do you like..paracetamol and coffee? Huh huh'

'my drugs are okay, your drugs are not'

Nope.

Some people can use drugs and still function, some people can't and become addicts.

You shouldn't punish the majority for the inability of the few.

And this is speaking as someone directly affected by addiction.

Men are the root of almost all evil, solve that problem and 95 percent of all serious crime would disappear. All the crimes listed above are overwhelmingly committed by men

“I have a friend who is an addiction counsellor and she reckons that if drugs disappeared, many of societies problems would be solved.”

No, many of the problems her clients have had may disappear- even then, I’d doubt that drugs are their real issue- it’s probably past psychological issues that drove them into drug addiction in the first place - it’s those issues that likely need addressing now

you can live without drugs, not without money.

I think religion is genuinely a load of shíte but I’ve never really had a days trouble from a person pursuing their religion.

On the other hand, a junky tried to rob me at syringe point and I had to act fast on two other occasions also.

They're definitely not the root of all evil since people choose to take drugs for many different reasons:

• Boredom
• Escapism
• Relaxation
• Dealing with Trauma
• Mental illness

For example, I recall hearing that heroin addicts have a higher then normal chance of having being abused as children. In that case the root of the evil clearly is not the heroin.

In contrast if someone takes cocaine because they're bored with their normal nights out and ends up battering someone in a fight then I think I think it's a more complex question about the root of the evil.

It seems more like a case of confirmation bias on the part of your friend.

You friend is an addiction counsellor.

All the customers for your friends work are drugs addicts.

Your friend sees all the people who visit and sees they all have a common problem "drug addiction"

Your friend therefore assumes all problems people suffer as being associated with drug addiction and so thinks the solution is simply to ban drugs.

Your friend is not correct.

Actually, a good addiction counsellor would know that an addiction is a shell that an addict will use to protect themselves from pain, guilt, judgement etc. You can't just take away the drug and expect them to be fine; the addict has to fill in the holes in themselves that the drugs used to fill. They need new ways and strategies to protect themselves, which is a long road and fraught with setbacks and that's why relapse is so common.

Sounds like the OP's counsellor friend is a bit shite at their job, tbh.

I'd take your friend's qualified and presumably, experienced, point of view over anyone else, as would most people. As usual with humans, it is only when kids arrive that logic sets in. I see one other poster here tried to claim that addiction and " responsibility of use " are two separate things, which is, of course, laughable.

A few sleepless months worrying about your son or daughter soon focuses the mind on that claim. Almost every addict I've met began their life of addiction claiming " but I use drugs responsibly".

You see it in every Rural Pharmacy in the country.

" 24 Nurophen plus please"

" what's it for"

" My mums period pains, she sent me down"

" She's 62, isn't she?"

Down to the next chemist in the next village.

" 24 Nurophen plus please"

" what's it for?"

"Back pain"

" There you go"

And on and on it goes. Multiple pharmacy's per week, every week. Just so you can responsibly get out of bed and get the kids out to school.

It's not just Cocaine. In fact we are on the cusp of a National Coedine epidemic which is much, much, much worse. Addicts are the only responsible users of drugs. That fact that a regular user of any drug is at the stage where they consider their usage to be "responsible" is practically the definition of the first stages of addiction.

If that happens to be a good description of anyone here, it's not too late to stop, especially if you have a family.

I accept this as a contributing factor, but it's still not getting at the underlying causes. People are not doing drugs because there's less police around or because the dealers are finding it easier to operate. The dealers are taking advantage of a situation that already exists: work out what that is and no one will require their services.

The question wasn't why is cocaine more prominent, it's why are people getting addicted to it? (And by addicted, I mean where it becomes a problem: not the casual useage).

That gives an idea of the level of death annually attributable to alcohol: 4 deaths per day; or circa 1500/ year.

I remember trying to do an exercise to get my head around fentanyl epidemic in the USA; from my rough numbers if Ireland had an identical problem it would be circa 1200/annum.

Fentanyl issue in USA is horrendous and is worth reading up on, particularly in certain areas; but as bad as it is its still less than alcohol deaths per annum here.

Two hours well spent for anyhow convinced that even social alcohol drinking is harmless.

A habitual drug user describing themselves as responsible makes me think you have a rather narrow understanding of responsibility. You mean, I assume, personal health-wise only? Like, you don't OD or go around on a rape rampage while high? You're managing or accepting the damage to your brain, lungs, nose yada yada.

But in terms of societal responsibility there's a rather large difference which is difficult to ignore. There are of course personal dangers from any medicine and alcohol, but those are certainly not illegal. Your class A habit is fueling drug cartels, crime etc. How are you rationalizing that as being socially responsible?