Heroin
There’s a street in the centre of Dublin where you’ve been able to buy heroin for ten years; more than ten years. You can’t miss it; a tip-toe away from Dublin’s main street, a right and a left, and there you are; a quirky parallel universe where up is down and down is up.
Heroin Appears to be Legal. News to me.
The guys in the car couldn’t look more suspicious; just hanging out, with the window slightly ajar, lightly armed - nothing too heavy, out for a Saturday drive. The losers on the bicycles - getting out in the sunshine, active, sporty. The hordes of pale-looking bruised people, arguing about some nonsense or other - chatting with neighbours, a free exchange of ideas; citizens. Just a group of friends - chilling. Please move along. No heroin here. This has been the way of things for as long as I can remember.
On some streets in Dublin, heroin is legal - it’s bought and sold like apples and bananas two streets over. Sure, every once in a while the Gardaí will do the old rubber gloves in the pockets routine, but this is just a setback, a realignment, a message. Now and again a few, desperate, poor folks go to jail and they’re replaced by more poor folks next week. Drug dealing in Dublin is a lot like a long-running play; the actors change, but the characters don’t. Nightly performances without interruption.
Why Wouldn’t You Deal Heroin?
You literally couldn’t design a worse situation. A finite supply of an addictive substance that elicits a desire so strong that it completely overtakes all other urges being distributed by a violent oligopoly who are rewarded massively for their work. Oh, and as a bonus, most of the money we give to these scary people comes from petty crime - the really annoying stuff like bike theft, pick pocketing, bag snatching.
I suppose I’m writing this because the situation is scary and tragic at the same time. It’s scary to know that you’re 50 yards from organised criminals when you’re walking to get the bus. It’s tragic to see desperately poor, hopelessly addicted people being preyed upon. It’s baffling that despite a decade of failure in dealing with the issue through the “war on drugs” approach we’re still super-keen to give sweeping powers to our police force to do more of the same.
I don’t have a solution. I just know that two weeks ago a guy was stabbed in the neck outside our house. The poor sick addicts look as poor and as sick as ever. Simple economics seems to predict that selling heroin is an opportunity that can’t be missed - it’s worth killing for. North inner-city Dublin is not doing so well.
What we’ve been doing isn’t working. New ideas please.
An interesting and tragic post. Its an issue with which I am very unfamiliar.
If you are interested in finding out more on the issue, there are plenty of people in the GSCM/Sli Eile Community who are familiar with heroin addiction issues. One of Breda’s friends; Joanna, who I think you have met works in Merchant’s Quay http://www.mqi.ie/.
I think Frank Brady, one of the priests of the Ballymun Gospel Mass has some involvement with http://www.aldp.ie/ I think. At least he helped out fundraising for them.
Thanks for this Michael. There are so many people trying to help, but it appears to be easier than ever to buy heroin around the Parnell Street area of Dublin; which is a tad depressing. Is Ireland ready for an approach to coping with the drug problem that moves away from punishment, law enforcement towards making drug dealing unprofitable? From an economic point of view would it not be better to offer free heroin in a controlled clinical environment?
Very good post Paul. It’s a tough issue and I agree that a holistic approach is needed.. It can’t just be treated as a crime and that’s that. I recommend watching The Rutland on RTE (two episodes on RTE Player) for an insight into addiction. I always assumed that addicts slip into heroin addiction after trying it “for the craic” (if you’ll pardon the pun) but I didn’t really consider that some addicts are on it to mask emotional or mental pain. Really providing therapeutic services for poorer people is one service offering that is missing a lot (there are some services available, in Tallaght for one, but these are private and more can be done) - perhaps some people wouldn’t end up on the gear if they didn’t find normal life such a struggle.
Offering free heroin would stop some crime but you still have the problem of the “public nuisance” of stoned junkies wandering around town as well as the NIMBYism of where to locate methadone clinics. Also when people want to try gear for the first time, I assume they won’t go to a heroin clinic? I understand that even some addicts who attend methadone clinics do also buy heroin on the street (don’t know why, it’s just one of those half-facts that sticks in my memory..)
All my knowledge on the subject is second-hand information unfortunately (or fortunately?) but I understand that there is a shortage of treatment centres for addicts who want help so that’s another element that needs to be addressed. I remember a Focus Ireland guy telling me in a pub one time that junkies only finally kick the habit in their late 20s (when they try to quit at earlier ages they always relapse he said) but all help should be offered them at all times.
In terms of crime and punishment, drugs are apparently easily available in jails so people don’t sober up when they’re arrested and once they’re back out they fall into the same circles and patterns.. More needs to be done to help convicted criminals.. Prison should mean rehabilitation and not just punishment and criminal networking opportunities.
There are too many strands to this problem.. But it would be good if government some day took a serious look at it and decided to make a serious attempt to bring its resources to bear in fixing it and having a happier, more well-adjusted population (that might reduce our drinking problem too!)
Just my two cent!
Thanks for the thoughtful post Conor. I don’t think there are any perfect answers to this; but some solutions might help to take some of the violence and criminality out of the equation. Sadly I think there’s so much political capital to be made from the punishment approach that a treatment/economic approach is a long way away.