Drug Problem In Mayfield

Straight Talker

Did anyone see the article today in the Echo about it?Apparently people are queing for drugs outside a house in Ballinderry Park from early in the morning and kid's as young as 14 are being given free heroin samples.The guards would wan't put a better effort in to patrol certain estates before drugs like heroin destroy working class areas of the city or has that already happened?

tommy21

Yeah I read it - while it seems they have some sort of a plan in the works to reduce the problem in that estate, all that will happen is some other poor feckers in others estates will get more of the same. Shocking stuff though - handing out free heroin to 14 year olds to get another generation addicted.

In relation to the guards, unfortunately unless people are willing to testify against such dealers and speak out like this community has begun to do (though nobody would be photographed or identified and I don't blame them), there is not much they can do bar fire fight.

CorkMan

I know someone from up there and he said people are lying about on the ground when they take the stuff. He said at 10AM the other morning there were people who took the stuff just lying down in the grass outside.

Straight Talker

Straight Talker wrote: »

.................... before drugs like heroin destroy working class areas of the city or has that already happened?

Plenty of heroin over in the southside anyway, before The Lough Tavern was destroyed (demolished after a fire, was derelict for years) there were quite a few (10 to 15) junkies using it for shelter. Lots of breakins and a handful of armed robberies on shops etc by addicts. Quite a bit to go before any area is destroyed I reckon but there is a problem alright.

If enough of the low level dealers selling any sort of drug were put away instead of receiving suspended sentences that would be a step in the right direction.

Much of what's in the papers is utter drivel, pity no one would print how a suspended sentence is arranged, couldn't be printing that though could we.

Sonics2k

Stories like this are sadly not new, and have featured in the newspapers and radio quite a few times in the last few years, even on 96FM.

I live just around the corner from the estate, and I can say honestly that this story isn't exaggerated at all.
Hell, I've had to call the Gardai a few times because of junkies using our carpark to shoot up, and we have a lot of kids around here.

I know it's hard for the Garda to keep the place entirely clear, but they could do a lot more than they are now.

54kroc

I think the Garda and the city council should work together to kick these people out of the area.
The users and dealers seem to be in the flats also, this is a handy spot for users to shoot up and it's quite a shock for an adult to see, god knows what the children living there think.

all_smilz

cork45 wrote: »

I think the Garda and the city council should work together to kick these people out of the area.

errra sure while they are at it why dont they get the travellers out as well?

lets put them all in one spot ( under the rug) and pretend our world is just dandy.....

54kroc

@all_smilz

Quite a strange thing to say, What's wrong with Travellers?
I don't think drug dealers deserve to be housed by the council, It's no secret who's dealing the drugs up there, They are council tenants, why should the be housed by the council.

I wouldn't usually believe the echo headlines about the state of the area but I've seen it for my self, a child can buy heroin up there, you can see users injecting themselves in the hallways of the flats.
That's not something any child should be doing or have to see, yet you seem to think it's a joke, Your post is a joke.

Cadyboo

all_smilz wrote: »

errra sure while they are at it why dont they get the travellers out as well?

lets put them all in one spot ( under the rug) and pretend our world is just dandy.....

Why in gods name are you comparing travellers to the junkies who are living in council/corporation houses and destroying their communities with drugs?

I know it is hard for the guards to do much but seriously it is getting beyond the joke in a lot of areas. These junkies and dealers have no fear whatsoever of the guards, as they know that nothing will be done. And even if they do go to prision they just carry on their taking and dealing inside. I know some people who are delighted with getting locked up, they see it as a holiday and can see their friends everyday. Like, what can you do with these type of people?

linfield

I think you missed the point cork45.

My reading of his post is that by kicking them out of one area, they will just move to another area and become someone elses problem.

What should be done is trying to solve the drug problem in the city and country as a whole rather than just pass the buck.

all_smilz

cork45 wrote: »

@all_smilz

Quite a strange thing to say, What's wrong with Travellers?
I don't think drug dealers deserve to be housed by the council, It's no secret who's dealing the drugs up there, They are council tenants, why should the be housed by the council.

I wouldn't usually believe the echo headlines about the state of the area but I've seen it for my self, a child can buy heroin up there, you can see users injecting themselves in the hallways of the flats.
That's not something any child should be doing or have to see, yet you seem to think it's a joke, Your post is a joke.

actually I was clearly all too glibly referring to the ship em up and move em out, NIMBY attitude that its the job of the council and gardai to move "Problematic people" ie drug addicts, dealers (and travellers which is why I mentioned them) ...
yup... move em out of our sight- no mention of where and what to do with them....
It might be awful for you to look at, boohoo.... whats it like for them? probably no picnic.... arent we all great to read the Echo and tut tut about the fall of society....

I am afraid you have misinterpreted my "joke"

Drugs appall me as do simplistic attitudes....

all_smilz

linfield wrote: »

I think you missed the point cork45.

My reading of his post is that by kicking them out of one area, they will just move to another area and become someone elses problem.

Errr what makes you think I am a HIS?

Cadyboo

all_smilz wrote: »

actually I was clearly all too glibly referring to the ship em up and move em out, NIMBY attitude that its the job of the council and gardai to move "Problematic people" ie drug addicts, dealers (and travellers which is why I mentioned them) ...
yup... move em out of our sight- no mention of where and what to do with them....
It might be awful for you to look at, boohoo.... whats it like for them? probably no picnic.... arent we all great to read the Echo and tut tut about the fall of society....

I am afraid you have misinterpreted my "joke"

Drugs appall me as do simplistic attitudes....

Are you asking whats it like for the junkies and dealers?? :eek: Because I think they chose to shoot up first day, so we are to worry about poor them sitting outside peoples houses offering drugs to their kids?
This is not about reading the echo, it is about what is happening in these places. REAL LIFE you know?

linfield wrote: »

I think you missed the point cork45.

My reading of his post is that by kicking them out of one area, they will just move to another area and become someone elses problem.

What should be done is trying to solve the drug problem in the city and country as a whole rather than just pass the buck.

I don't care where they put them as long as they are not in my vicinity tbh, just like anyone (though a lot of people on their high horses here would not admit because they are not in this situation) who can see this happening and have kids, nieces, nephews, cousins would feel about it.
Obviously it would be better to solve it, but if they knew how to do that, it would be done everywhere in the world, no?

54kroc

@all_smilz, Fair enough, I didn't mean the whole not in my back yard thing, I just don't think the council should house them.

I guess having seen what goes on up there for myself I feel quite strongly about it.
I always thought kids been offered drugs for free was an urban myth but it's happening up there and I guess in a lot of other places as well.
With the economy the was it is it wouldn't take a lot for Ireland to go the way of Portugal in the 80's,90's.

adam500

Why cant the government bring in internment, if the Garda know who the criminals are and what they are doing, they should be able to nab the bastards.

Cadyboo

Cadyboo wrote: »

Are you asking whats it like for the junkies and dealers?? :eek: Because I think they chose to shoot up first day, so we are to worry about poor them sitting outside peoples houses offering drugs to their kids?

Ever think that they junkies were once kids who were offered heroin much like the innocent little kids you speak of?

A320

Everybody Knows who's banging out the drugs!!! Absolute inbreds,plenty of cases pending also!! Was there leaflets sent around to houses threatening the drug dealers yet???? I believe its the only solution,zero tolerance

54kroc

A320 wrote: »

Everybody Knows who's banging out the drugs!!! Absolute inbreds,plenty of cases pending also!! Was there leaflets sent around to houses threatening the drug dealers yet???? I believe its the only solution,zero tolerance

The Guards arrested a chap for handing out the leaflets.

mikom

cork45 wrote: »

With the economy the was it is it wouldn't take a lot for Ireland to go the way of Portugal in the 80's,90's.

Guess how they got out of that.....

A study by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, has found that in the five years after decriminalisation, Portugal’s drug problems had improved in every measured way. The man behind the research, Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer, told Time: “Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success.”

Portuguese policy is that possession of small amounts of any drug is not a criminal offence; if you are found possessing it, you can be put before a panel of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser, who will decide appropriate treatment. You are free to refuse that treatment, and a jail sentence is not an option. Drug trafficking is still illegal and punishable by jail.

I’ll just go through the figures; apologies for the slew of statistics. Drug use among 13- to 15-year-olds fell from 14.1 per cent in 2001 to 10.6 per cent in 2006. Among 16- to 18-year-olds it has dropped from 27.6 per cent to 21.6 per cent. This, incidentally, has come after years of steadily increasing drug use among the young; between 1995 and 2001, use in the 16-to-18 bracket leapt up from 14.1 per cent to its 2001 high. This drop has come against a background of increasing drug use across the rest of the EU.

There has been a mild increase in use among older groups, 19-24 and up, but this is expected due to the rise in use in the young in the 1990s; it’s a “cohort effect”, meaning that young people get older, and take their habits with them.

Further, HIV infections among drug users fell, drug-related deaths fell, there was a decrease in trafficking, and a huge amount of money was saved by offering treatment instead of prison sentences.

The Portugal experience suggests that decriminalisation is exactly the right approach for their stated priorities of reducing drug use and reducing crime. If your approach has been shown, several times, to achieve the opposite of what you intend, it may be time to change that approach.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture...in-respond-no/

A320

cork45 wrote: »

The Guards arrested a chap for handing out the leaflets.

Typical,leaflets or no leaflets its gotta be done

54kroc

@mikom, I read a good bit about what they did a few years back, I don't know if i'd fancy that over here, the problem was huge over there, something like 1% of the population were users, crazy stuff.

Cadyboo

RoverJames wrote: »

Ever think that they junkies were once kids who were offered heroin much like the innocent little kids you speak of?

Maybe they were or were not, but does that make it ok?The ones that I know were always scum, always in trouble and just progressed from smoking to drug to drug.
Would you like them hanging around outside your house? Id say not.

Cadyboo

Cadyboo wrote: »

Maybe they were or were not
, but does that make it ok?

Nope, did I say it's ok?

Cadyboo wrote: »

The ones that I know were always scum, always in trouble and just progressed from smoking to drug to drug.
Would you like them hanging around outside your house? Id say not.

Of course I don't want dealers outside my house, you've missed my point entirely.

charlemont

adam500 wrote: »

Why cant the government bring in internment, if the Garda know who the criminals are and what they are doing, they should be able to nab the bastards.

They don't give two sh*ts about it, Heroin is very hard to find in searches as its quiet small, But junkies tend to do stupid blatant crimes so its easy work for the Gardaí to catch them committing these crimes but the trigger for Corks Heroin problem was the closure of Spike Island which was hard drug free and the movement of the young offenders to St Patricks which is stuffed with Heroin, Strangely enough that coincided with the Hash drought of 05/06 so there was a new market in Cork immediately with young offenders now having connections with Heroin dealers in Dublin.
In fairness the Gardaí did stop and search a fair few people at Kent Station when this all started.
Where I live there were a few people involved in it (one now in prison for involvement in death of Gary Bull) So there were strange people coming and going all day, But now Heroin has branched out of the City Centre to the estates and its a shame I see people not much older than 15/16 in bits from Heroin.

EyeSight

don't see why people here just accept that the guards can't do anything about it. emmm yes they can!

for one, if there's an estate like this then the first idea that would pop into anyones mind is to station one or two patrol cars there. after a few weeks of that i'm sure they'd deter some, arrest some or at the very least gather intel.

what do we have detectives for in this country? it really pisses me off that crime bosses in Ireland are known to everyone, yet there doesn't seem to be any real action against them. not the number one guys. sure we're in a recession but thats no excuse for allowing crime to happen. and im not one of those idiots who goes around saying "f**k the law", i don't blame the guards on the street for this, i blame the bosses

Cadyboo

RoverJames wrote: »

you've missed my point entirely.

No I haven't. You are saying that maybe they were offered the drugs as kids like what is happening up there now.
But I don't care how they became what they are, do you? Because that is the way your comment comes across.

AFC_1903

EyeSight wrote: »

don't see why people here just accept that the guards can't do anything about it. emmm yes they can!

for one, if there's an estate like this then the first idea that would pop into anyones mind is to station one or two patrol cars there. after a few weeks of that i'm sure they'd deter some, arrest some or at the very least gather intel.

what do we have detectives for in this country? it really pisses me off that crime bosses in Ireland are known to everyone, yet there doesn't seem to be any real action against them. not the number one guys. sure we're in a recession but thats no excuse for allowing crime to happen. and im not one of those idiots who goes around saying "f**k the law", i don't blame the guards on the street for this, i blame the bosses

If they know where it is being sold from then surely some kind of anonymous tip being called in would be enough to validate watching the house, which would validate a raid.

Be that call be by a concerned resident, or a guarda in order to be able to validate getting a warrant.

EyeSight

AFC_1903 wrote: »

If they know where it is being sold from then surely some kind of anonymous tip being called in would be enough to validate watching the house, which would validate a raid.

Be that call be by a concerned resident, or a guarda in order to be able to validate getting a warrant.

they definitely know. i'd eat my own face if they didn't. there's been countless media exposes on this(not just in cork) yet nothing changes. besides, raiding a small time drug dealers house isn't a big deal. but going after the crime bosses(who again everyone knows, a quick google search will even give you some of their addresses) is what matters. i for one am baffled at how far behind our crime fighting is. i mean we're still going after them for tax evasion, which was what the USA were doing in the 40's.

in other countries, to evade being captured by the police, the gang leaders aren't even known to most of their gang members, let alone newspapers and the police

Cadyboo

Cadyboo wrote: »

Are you asking whats it like for the junkies and dealers?? :eek: Because I think they chose to shoot up first day, so we are to worry about poor them sitting outside peoples houses offering drugs to their kids?
This is not about reading the echo, it is about what is happening in these places. REAL LIFE you know?................

RoverJames wrote: »

Ever think that they junkies were once kids who were offered heroin much like the innocent little kids you speak of?

RoverJames wrote: »

.............. you've missed my point entirely.

Cadyboo wrote: »

No I haven't. You are saying that maybe they were offered the drugs as kids like what is happening up there now.
But I don't care how they became what they are, do you? Because that is the way your comment comes across.

Ok, so the dealers/junkies who were once non dealers and non junkies were once offered drugs but you don't give a feck about this as that was their choice. But the kids up your way who are being offered drugs are somehow superior beings who shouldn't be offered drugs. If they are and they make the choice to take them that's the dealer's fault of course.

Unreal double standard really.

Sue_2

Just wondering what the area is like now??? Has anything been done about the problem ?

starch4ser

Yeah, Jim Corr was given the names and addresses of all the dealers in the area and after some relentless door to door preaching about the new world order, they all packed up and moved away.

Sue_2

So there is no drug problem there any more ?

TwoTokeTommy

I would be shocked if there's no problem, not just Mayfield either.

In the local news recently there's been reports about the Surge in sale of crystal meth ingredients and the contaminated brown powder that was marketed as MDMA, linked to the deaths of two young men in Kinsale.

Dirty adulterated drugs are a serious health problem, and they're all too common, so much so that it's much more difficult to get clean stuff. Of course this directly ties back to prohibition and a low level/misinformed knowledge about drugs. Sadly that's an inconvenient truth we're not supposed to discuss.

Even the cannabis market is gone to pot. :rolleyes: At a shot, I would say it's harder to get nice weed (without paying twice what you did 2 years ago) than any class A drug, which is pretty sad. Sprayed commercial weed is all too popular, and god knows what the detrimental long term health effects are of that awful stuff, I'm not aware of the HSE issuing any clear warnings about it. The current law enforcement approach in relation to cannabis is a waste of resources and highly irresponsible.

boiledsweets

have to agree with the last poster on the first page,why cant this problem be cleared up by the gards,i mean seriously letting it continue only gives them a bad rep in the neighbourhood..

TwoTokeTommy

boiledsweets wrote: »

have to agree with the last poster on the first page,why cant this problem be cleared up by the gards,i mean seriously letting it continue only gives them a bad rep in the neighbourhood..

The gardai have no trouble getting warrants. Unfortunately, it would almost appear public policy and in the interests of the decision makers to continue worsening the problem.

boiledsweets

then thats an awful situation i think, where its just going to worsen,my heart goes out to them it must be a nightmare dealing with the stress of that it must be depressing

TwoTokeTommy

Meanwhile the general public haven't got a clue what's going on beyond some scary news stories.

ps - All drugs are not all the same, even the same type. One esctacy tab can be very different to the next. Simple chemistry. But that's too complicated for a soundbite discussion in a soundbite banana republic nation.