Open Drug Dealing.

starviewadams

I work in an office in the North Inner City and for the past month or so there has been obvious open drug dealing taking place opposite our offices.My desk is right at the window so I have a birds eye view of it.In the beginning it started off happening for about an hour or so everyday just after lunchtime,but it's now got to the point that it the two guys dealing are there from 11am and they're still there when I'm leaving work at 5:30ish in the evening.

I've pretty much figured out how the operation works,one guy takes the money,and a younger guy comes up from the lane where the drugs are obviously stashed and passes the drugs to the customer.A taxi comes every afternoon and another guy gets out and swaps places with the guy down the lane.

We've rang the Garda station and the Garda confidential line thing lots of times now,but if we're lucky a squad car drives buy,and when that happens the guy on the street just walks off and returns in 20 mins or so.

I lock my bike up in yard/car park behind our offices and last week when I was going home I disturbed two addicts who were in the middle of shooting up.I don't lock my bike in there anymore obviously.

Just wondering if anyone here has any experience in getting a problem like this dealt with?it's so frustrating watching this going on and getting worse as it could be so easily stopped by the Gardai with just a modicum of effort on their part.

Cheers.

Coriolanus

Same, I work down the road from some kind of drop in centre. Open selling, thievery and a couple of assaults by the 'clientelle'. Nothing ever happens. Local business owner has had to take a civil case against one of them because the guards declined to go forward with assault charges.

actuallylike

starviewadams wrote: »

I've pretty much figured out how the operation works,one guy takes the money,and a younger guy comes up from the lane where the drugs are obviously stashed and passes the drugs to the customer.A taxi comes every afternoon and another guy gets out and swaps places with the guy down the lane.

Is this the view from your office?

fasttalkerchat

actuallylike wrote: »

Is this the view from your office?

That is exactly how I imagined it. Drug dealers have been taking note from The Wire.

If the gardaí wont do anything, get in touch with a TD. Annoy as many of them as you can for as long as it takes.

chris85

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

That is exactly how I imagined it. Drug dealers have been taking note from The Wire.

I got the same image. The Dublin lads wouldnt stand a minute with them boys.

68Murph68

The Guards won't do anything unless they are forced to do so.

They won't pay any serious attention to the government (they might make a token effort but won't make any serious long-term effort)

If I were you I'd get in touch with the media - you could get in touch with TV3 (more in their arena than RTE) tell them that all they need to do is set up a camera in your office watching the action and they will have a "Dublin's Inner City Drug Trading Special" for very cheap and very easy.

Alternatively you could set up a video, record them in action and upload to YouTube. Then send on a link to local TDs and councillors, local organisations and business owners, media organisations (online, paper, local radio, as well as national) If the action is as you describe it, I could see it going viral very quickly. Along with the video include details of how many times you have previously contacted the Guards both anonymously and otherwise. Very hard for the Guards to ignore it in this case.

Also it would be relatively easy to update should the problem resume down the road.

A bit of a worry is that there may be security implications for your office/building. Obviously the bigger the building the more secure. Try and not make it too obvious where the filming is done from it at all possible. Also the Guards probably won't be too pleased about things and if you are unlucky you might end up picking up some hassle. However the fact that you are in the city as opposed to the country will probably protect you. Also with the publicity it is unlikely they will directly try anything.

It would be a bit of work, but I think it has the most likely possibility for success.

Brendog

Thats nothing. I've seen people shooting up in broad daylight on Baggot st.

Some seriously disgusting Junkies in Dublin. Can't help but feel sorry for them.

Coriolanus

Brendog wrote: »

Thats nothing. I've seen people shooting up in broad daylight on Baggot st.

Some seriously disgusting Junkies in Dublin. Can't help but feel sorry for them.

Heh, there was a lad shooting up in the little fire door entrance of Penneys on Abbey St the other evening. Security guard didn't want to know.

charlemont

Just tell the Guards you are sure its Hash or Weed they are selling and then you will see them, They actually just don't give a damn about Heroin.

Degsy

charlemont wrote: »

Just tell the Guards your sure its Hash or Weed they are selling and then you will see them, They actually just don't give a damn about Heroin.

Better yet,stand there smoking a spliff with a few friends and you'll see cops fighting with each other to nick you...it works even better if any of you are rockers or whatever.

charlemont

Degsy wrote: »

Better yet,stand there smoking a spliff with a few friends and you'll see cops fighting with each other to nick you...it works even better if any of you are rockers or whatever.

Sadly its so so true...

carlmango11

This crap has been going on in Dublin for so long. How is it that we have such a problem with it and NOTHING is done?

I've never been to a city with a problem like this in its centre! Especially in the middle of such busy streets, it's incredible!

Are the police powerless or apathetic?

charlemont

carlmango11 wrote: »

This crap has been going on in Dublin for so long. How is it that we have such a problem with it and NOTHING is done?

I've never been to a city with a problem like this in its centre! Especially in the middle of such busy streets, it's incredible!

Are the police powerless or apathetic?

They just don't care, I'm convinced they are told by their superiors not to bother junkies, Its the same where I live, In fact they closed a drug free prison here and since then the place has just gotten worse with most crime here now caused by addicts, Yet before the prison was shut we had hardly any Heroin addicts, The mind boggles or is it deliberate ??? A shower of monkeys could police the place better.

lima

I live in a ground floor city centre apartment and my bedroom balcony backs out onto a lane near capel st. they are constantly coming down the lane to inject, I usually have the blinds down but if I look out im literally 3meters away from them. I even caught them on my balcony shooting up a month ago, I pulled up the blinds and they apologised and left. Today two of them came down the lane and 'chased the dragon' with tinfoil today, called the cops but they were gone by the time they arrived.

I just moved home after over 6 years of being away. In all the cities I've been in, I have never seen more junkies, open drug dealing and open heroin injecting as Dublin. It is disgusting and is putting me off settling here.

starviewadams

Thanks for the suggestions,I'll contact a few TD's offices tomorrow and see what the response from them is.

Things have been getting worse and worse in the area since the dealing has become more regular,more addicts hanging around and more discarded syringes,human waste etc on the basement steps every morning.If the Gardai had acted on our information when we first contacted them about the lads dealing then things would never have gotten this bad.They just don't seem to care,which is very frustrating.

Love2love

Are you near Abbey Street or Jervis?
I am sick of the open drug deals on the Luas. They get on at one stop and off at the next. They were taunting the guards today when the jumped on today because the door had closed - I thought they'd be picked up at Jervis but there was no Guards to be seen. Walked around the corner onto Liffey Street and about 5 guards chatting away - not a care in the world.

It's absolutely feffin disgusting.....

Alkers

You can understand the cops not wanting to deal with the Junkies but the dealers should be a different story. Can you see where the stash is? Maybe that would be of interest to the Gardai if it's enough to keep them going for a whole day.

drunkmonkey

Simona1986 wrote: »

You can understand the cops not wanting to deal with the Junkies

I can't understand it no, if there's a concert there busting and taking weed off peaceful usually law abiding people but yet if you want to shoot some heroin in the middle of one of Ireland busiest tourist spots it's ok. Excuse the pun but it's a cop out.

mcmoustache

AGS know that this is going on but for some reason, they're not bothered about sorting it out. I remember around a year ago that it took some calls to Joe Duffy to get the Gárdaí to move junkies out of the boardwalk area. They stopped doing it after the eyes of the media were turned away.

The suggestion to record this stuff and post it on youtube is a good one. It might not get anywhere but at least the evidence will be there for all to see. Anything to raise the profile of this problem can only be a good thing.

starviewadams

Simona1986 wrote: »

You can understand the cops not wanting to deal with the Junkies but the dealers should be a different story. Can you see where the stash is? Maybe that would be of interest to the Gardai if it's enough to keep them going for a whole day.

From watching them I think the stash is kept down the laneway,because when the addict approaches the first guy on the street they give him the money,and then the other fella comes up from the lane and hands the addict something.Have expalined all this over the phone to the Garda station and the confidential line yoke.

Hopefully getting in touch with the TD's tomorrow will do something.Don't really feel comfortable videoing them mainly cos I don't want to bring any hassle on myself or the people who work in our offices.

If nothing comes of contacting the TD's then I'll wash my hands of the situation.If nobody who's paid to care about this does,then I'm not going to waste my time worrying about it either.Just thought I'd try.

Jay D

lima wrote: »

I live in a ground floor city centre apartment and my bedroom balcony backs out onto a lane near capel st. they are constantly coming down the lane to inject, I usually have the blinds down but if I look out im literally 3meters away from them. I even caught them on my balcony shooting up a month ago, I pulled up the blinds and they apologised and left. Today two of them came down the lane and 'chased the dragon' with tinfoil today, called the cops but they were gone by the time they arrived.

I just moved home after over 6 years of being away. In all the cities I've been in, I have never seen more junkies, open drug dealing and open heroin injecting as Dublin. It is disgusting and is putting me off settling here.

Never get a ground floor apartment. Especially in the city centre.

Oink

I used to live in city centre, near a shooting spot. Well, our entrance was the shooting spot, to be more accurate.

I wrote a letter FAO the superintendent of my local station, explaining the real impact it had on our life.
I then called the station EVERY SINGLE TIME the junkies turned up. every single effin' time. But I was always very polite.

It took a few months, but guess what.

The way I see it, you don't have to accept it if you're not ok with it.

gurramok

Again, another thread on drug injecting in the city centre. Move the clinics to Grafton st and the problem will largely disappear from D1. Move the clinics to an Amsterdam(like in The Wire) in an abandoned industrial zone and the problem will probably disappear from the city centre.
The situation will only change when there is political will. As for living on Capel st and other similar streets, very few would opt to live around there permanently because of this problem. Many move to the suburbs to escape the junkies.

2cool4school

this is an issue thats close to my heart because there are junkies and scumbags dealing and injecting drugs right outside my workplace in the city centre too

i am so sick of seeing it and its dangerous too as these guys are probably all riddled with aids and they can be violent if they need a fix so anyone in the area is at real risk from this scum

id like to see the problem contained for once and for all

if a person is found taking or dealing drugs (not hash obvo) just once they should be put into a garda van and taken to a cold turkey detox camp in the sticks somewhere like leitrim to get clean

they are given one chance

if they are caught again they are placed in an isolated detox camp where they go cold turkey and once the drugs are out of their system they get to break rocks for a year

if they reoffend when they get out they get two years breaking rocks and so on

decent members of the public are entitled to safe movement on public streets and this is how to achieve that

Degsy

A mate of mine who's a nurse tells me that the drugs to make heroin addicts actually stop have been available in this country for years.

However,the Govt being the Govt have opted instead for a taxpayer-funded,lifetime maintanance programme using methadone.

As some chemists and a lot of doctors make thier bread and butter through this programme you can just hear the vested interests at work once again.

Birneybau

gurramok wrote: »

Again, another thread on drug injecting in the city centre. Move the clinics to Grafton st and the problem will largely disappear from D1. Move the clinics to an Amsterdam(like in The Wire) in an abandoned industrial zone and the problem will probably disappear from the city centre.
The situation will only change when there is political will. As for living on Capel st and other similar streets, very few would opt to live around there permanently because of this problem. Many move to the suburbs to escape the junkies.

Why should people feel the need to move to the suburbs?

I work on Abbey Street myself and am sick of these zombies.

The streets should be reclaimed by good honest folk and these fcukers should be dealt with. The city could be a vibrant, buzzing place if these creatures were taken from the streets.

Some day a real rain will come and wash the scum from the streets.

(God, I sound like a mentalist)

Degsy

Birneybau wrote: »

Why should people feel the need to move to the suburbs?

I work on Abbey Street myself and am sick of these zombies.

The streets should be reclaimed by good honest folk and these fcukers should be dealt with. The city could be a vibrant, buzzing place if these creatures were taken from the streets.

Some day a real rain will come and wash the scum from the streets.

(God, I sound like a mentalist)

And forget about then being some sort of "victims"...these fcuckers are junkies through choice and choice alone.

I've heard 100's of them mouthing off on buses etc over the years and i've never heard one say they want to get clean and come off gear.

Instead its a perpetual stream of discussions about tablets,physeptone,robberies,charges,sentences,claims,pregnancies,deaths and warrants.

They may need "clean" urine to get thier "takeaways" of methadone so they simply does up on prescription meds like Dalmane and Valium instead..this is waht constitutes the bulk of the dealing you see in town.

These people are happy to be part of this subculture and often use dosages of methadone and severity of sentences as a badge of honour.

Fcuck them all,i say.

fasttalkerchat

Birneybau wrote: »

Why should people feel the need to move to the suburbs?

I work on Abbey Street myself and am sick of these zombies.

The streets should be reclaimed by good honest folk and these fcukers should be dealt with. The city could be a vibrant, buzzing place if these creatures were taken from the streets.

Some day a real rain will come and wash the scum from the streets.

(God, I sound like a mentalist)

Deal with the dealers first IMO.

Degsy

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Deal with the dealers first IMO.

They're nearly all dealers...people are getting prescriptions from doctors and selling the tablets on...most heroin addicts will buy in bulk and sell a few deals to pay for thier own habits.

Bloodwing

mcmoustache wrote: »

AGS know that this is going on but for some reason, they're not bothered about sorting it out.

Just because you can't see the Gardai doesn't mean they're not there.

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/15/00077.asp

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/22/00125.asp

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/eleven-face-charges-after-major-garda-drug-operation-2252060.html

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/operation-clean-street-nabs-swords-drugs-youth-794556.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0701/drugs.html

I'm not saying this is the case in the OP's situation but to say the Gardai are not bothered is obviously incorrect. They have limited resources for these kind of operations but they are the only effective way to make a dent in whats going on. It's very easy to stand on the outside and take a black and white view of the situation.

Degsy

Neilos wrote: »

Just because you can't see the Gardai doesn't mean they're not there.

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/15/00077.asp

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/22/00125.asp

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/eleven-face-charges-after-major-garda-drug-operation-2252060.html

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/operation-clean-street-nabs-swords-drugs-youth-794556.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0701/drugs.html

I'm not saying this is the case in the OP's situation but to say the Gardai are not bothered is obviously incorrect. They have limited resources for these kind of operations but they are the only effective way to make a dent in whats going on. It's very easy to stand on the outside and take a black and white view of the situation.

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/operation-clean-street-nabs-swords-drugs-youth-794556.html


Jesus christ..that report is 12 years old and it concerns a 16 year old being busted with 20 quids worth of hash....not exactly relevant to the current problem now is it?

They said yes, and he went to the defendant and asked him where he kept the hash. He said it was in a beer bottle near the wall. The two gardaí paid £20 for the cannabis. They paid with a £10 marked note and the rest was their own money, the court heard.
When the defendant was arrested and searched later, he was in possession of the marked £10 note.
He had one previous conviction for a similar offence.
‘Why was he dealing in drugs?’ asked Judge Desmond Windle.
‘He fell in with a bad lot,’ answered solicitor Corine Ranson.
‘He himself is a bad lot. He’s a dealer. It needs a certain degree of low cunning to get drugs in the first place and then sell them,’ said Judge Windle.

Bloodwing

Degsy wrote: »

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/operation-clean-street-nabs-swords-drugs-youth-794556.html


Jesus christ..that report is 12 years old and it concerns a 16 year old being busted with 20 quids worth of hash....not exactly relevant to the current problem now is it?

Good work skipping over the ones from a couple of months back that say the operations are on going and the one from two years ago relating to 11 people charged with sale of heroin, and yes it is relevant to the current problem. Drug dealers are dealers no matter what they happen to be caught with at the time. Just because he's selling hash today doesn't mean he won't sell heroin tomorrow.

As i said I'm not saying this is the case in the OP's situation, if you look at my post again i was replying to mcmoustache's post saying that AGS are not bothered about sorting it out. That is a very general statement and I am of the opinion that it is incorrect.

Here's some more cases of them not being bothered.

http://insideireland.ie/2012/03/09/operation-boa-sees-25-arrested-in-coolock-59938/

http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/14783/

Degsy

Neilos wrote: »

Good work skipping over the ones from a couple of months back that say the operations are on going and the one from two years ago relating to 11 people charged with sale of heroin,

Two years ago they cherged 11 people? Well aint that a big deal!

In two minutes they could nab twice that number of people dealing on Nth Earl Street alone if they could be bothered to open thier eyes.

Neilos wrote: »

Just because he's selling hash today doesn't mean he won't sell heroin tomorrow. ,

But there are people selling heroin today and nothing is being done about it.

Ask any of the business owners around Marlboro st,Eden Quay,talbot st and O'connell St is there a current,ongoing,worsening problem with drug-dealing and antisocial behaviour relating to it.

You can see OPEN dealing going on under the clock in Clery's or at any of teh statues along O'Connell st in CLEAR view of the Guard standing doing nothing outside the GPO.

Two days ago i saw a woman pouring physeptone into somebody else's lucazade bottle outside Micheal Guineys whilst two ban guards walked by no more than ten feet away.

Maybe AGS need to eat more carrots or go to specsavers or something.

Davidth88

I too have seen open drug dealing by the by the Woollen Mills the North side of H'pany bridge.

It was so blatent , there were a number of tourists sheltering from the rain there and you could see their jaws drop .

As for the ' top end ' of O'Connell St , that really is dump , loads of ' Shufflers ' as I call them , with their half filled bottles of ' coke ' or whatever .

Degsy

Check out the junction of Marlboro St and Eden Quay..especially the Abbey Theatre side..almost everybody you see in that area is either buying or selling drugs and they are not doing it surreptitiously,believe me.

Perhaps AGS should be trained in the subtle art of spotting drug transactions when they occur in the middle of the street,in broad daylight,in the same locations.

whatnext

When I lived in the UK many years ago we had a similar problem with "ladies of the night", open dealing, and drug use in the area.

Police, NHS, or Council didn't care. Apparently the problem had moved to our area from another because of vigilantes.

We met with the local MP who told us that he would help us as follows. He knew the system and said that if he merely made a complaint that it was wasting everyone's time, he needed backup.

Every time we saw something it was reported to the police (dealing, using and hookers). the routine was simple, every one in the apartment block I lived in had the number for the local station. Phone up say what you saw and ask who you are speaking to. White it down, including the time and date.

After 2 weeks the MP came back, collected all the records, and there were a lot!! He then went down to the station and wanted to know what action had been taken on each report. Obviously nothing was done, so he said he would be back in two weeks to see what was done then. We kept reporting everything, the police new the script as reports were probably in the hundreds within a month, so it only took 20seconds to make the report.

Anyway long story short, we ended up with almost a permanent police presence, plenty of arrests, and the area cleaned up within two months.

They arrived back in the area about 6 months later, reported it to the police, action taken straight away, never a problem there since (10 years on).

Bottom line is statistics are kept by the Gardai on reported crimes, and if the statistics get to a certain level lights will flash, and something will be done.

CucaFace

This is something that really bothers me as well.

I assume the OP works near Talbot/ Marlboro St ?

Look you won't stop this heroin epidemic but what really gets to me is that our Government have allowed this to go on in the City Centre where thousands of tourists see these animals (because this is what they really are) every single day is just beyond me.

How can they not realise that this is probably costing this country huge sums in lost revenue from other Tourists? Do they think that these tourists will go home and not tell everyone they meet about all the junkies all over the bloody place? I would guess many have been put off coming here on the back of such stories of this in your face dealing and constant drug abuse which I've seen have made so many people feel really insecure.

It's actually a national disgrace this has been allowed to happen and that nothing has been done to stop it.

They should be driven out of the city centre. It won't stop them taking and dealing, but it would clean the bloody place up and stop showing us up as a disgusting race of people to those who chose to visit here.

A far bigger Garda presence should exist in these areas, a new law passed that if you have tested positive for Heroin you can be moved along by the guards without any due cause and far more Street camera's should be introduced along the North side City Centre. Basically these Zombie's should be pestered out of the city centre for good. F their civil rights. They lose these in my mind when they become Heroin addicts. The city centre should be made off limits to them.

A zero tolerance approach is what is needed, but if it wasn't done in the booms times, what hope do we have now with all these cuts?

2ndcoming

I work on the upper end of O'Connell St. and it would bring out the Travis Bickle in anyone soon enough.


The main problem is despite the appearance of these degenerates the vast majority of the dealing and drugging going on is of prescription tablets. The Garda's hands are actually tied on this one because abuse of prescriptions falls under the jurisdiction of the Irish Medical Board, and as the drugs aren't actually illegal, there's little they can do about the situation under current legislation.

The biggest joke is that O'Connell St is the place the millions of tourists that visit Dublin every year are shuttled to from the airport and the first thing they see (apart from the rain) will be some transmoglified zombie shuffling by in a pair of Nike Shox and a Sergio Tacchini tracksuit.

CucaFace

2ndcoming wrote: »

I work on the upper end of O'Connell St. and it would bring out the Travis Bickle in anyone soon enough.


The main problem is despite the appearance of these degenerates the vast majority of the dealing and drugging going on is of prescription tablets. The Garda's hands are actually tied on this one because abuse of prescriptions falls under the jurisdiction of the Irish Medical Board, and as the drugs aren't actually illegal, there's little they can do about the situation under current legislation.

The biggest joke is that O'Connell St is the place the millions of tourists that visit Dublin every year are shuttled to from the airport and the first thing they see (apart from the rain) will be some transmoglified zombie shuffling by in a pair of Nike Shox and a Sergio Tacchini tracksuit.

Couldn't agree more.

Tackling these guys dealing really isn't the issue for me as I can see that it would be nearly impossible mission.

But you can tackle where these 'people' operate in.

Laws would have to be changed and inforced on a really srict regime but unfortunately massive man power and resources would be needed which I would guess the Govt now really just won't bother with.

In other cities they have places like certain parks where they 'allow' such types of dealing with minimal interferance by Police. You don't stop the drug problem, but at least you can contain it in one area.

And at the moment our drug problem seems to be contained in the City Centre where it is witnessed by so many Tourists every single day

Again I still find this a hard thing to understand how this has been allowed to happen.

starviewadams

It's not the addicts that really bother me,if the dealers weren't here they wouldn't be congregating in the area.It's the fact that these lads have been able to come along here for basically a month now and deal heroin openly,and despite me and the people in my offices making loads of reports to the Gardai about it,not a thing has been done to tackle the problem.

It seems that the powers that be don't really mind what's going on in the inner city,as they are not the ones who have to witness it everyday.I'm sure if this type of thing was happenning out in some leafy suburb that it would be stopped fairly quickly.Just the way things go in this country I suppose.Very frustrating and disheartening.

CucaFace

starviewadams wrote: »

It's not the addicts that really bother me,if the dealers weren't here they wouldn't be congregating in the area.

But you can also argue that the dealers wouldn't be there if their 'customers' weren't being allowed to congregate in the area in the first place.

And it's easier spot an addict than a dealer. It's not like they don't stand out around the streets.

Ive never been to another City in the world where the city centre is like this.

Dyr

ehhh...le webcam?

Degsy

Nice runners,eh?




these loving parents were dealing out of the child's buggy

RATM

I've got a similar problem outside my office in Pearse St, right around the corner from the Drug Treatment Board which is basically a shooting gallery for addicts. They congregate twice a day to get methadone but in the meantime a lot of dealing goes on in the alley. Every morning a Volkswagen Golf pulls and the dealer goes down the alley to deal. I've told the Gardai and even given them the reg plate but that was a year ago and it still goes on- they just aren't interested.

4 weeks ago I saw four junkies literally kicking the head off another right outside the entrance to the Trinity Capital Hotel- all in front of a packed bus full of tourists who had literally just arrived. The tourists had to scamper out onto the roadway at Pearse Street so they wouldn't get in the way of the fight. I felt ashamed to be Irish that day, what a sh1t welcome to our country and capital. The very fact the junkies were less than 50 metres from Pearse Street Garda Station yet still conducted this vicious assult just goes to show that they really don't give a dam about the law and aren't afraid of it one little bit.

xflyer

This kind of thing has been ongoing for many years in Dublin. You didn't have to look very hard to come across it at various places. Winetavern Street was one spot I remember, also back up in Nicholas st. In fact I've seen dealers shuffling away furtively when I walk near them.

Apparently I've been told that I have the look of a cop. Which will make it really hard for me if I ever develop a drug habit.;) But I suspect they are suspicious of anyone who fits the profile of an undercover drug squad officer. This might explain why uniformed officers don't seem to appear even if you call. There could be an ongoing operation gathering evidence and the uniformed Garda told to stay away.

This could be the case in the OPs situation.

Or it could be that there no real interest in moving them on. Quite simply because that's all that happens. They move on to another location and again to another location. In any case low level drug dealers are of no interest to police.

But ultimately there doesn't appear to be a political will to deal with the drug problem. Unless the dealers are shooting out with each other using AK47s. It's not taken too seriously. Also I think the fact that it's happening in Dublin means non Dublin politicans are not inclined to give a dam. But you can be damm sure if it was happening in Kenny's home town. It would be dealt with swiftly.

A bit of zero tolerance is needed. But we won't get it from either the politicans or the Garda top brass.

I am pie

We need surveillance cameras in high risk areas, and populated areas with lots of tourists. Need effective custodial sentences.

Treatment clincs need to be outside of the city centre, away from major population centres.

Degsy

I am pie wrote: »

Treatment clincs need to be outside of the city centre, away from major population centres.

They need to be shut down and theunds diverted towards proper healtcare..junkies falling foul of the legal system should be dealt with as criminals NOT as poor lost people who fell in with a bad crowd.

Your average Joe Shmoe gets 4 years for hitting somebody outside a pub whereas a junkie with 54 previous convictions gets off with a suspended sentence because he was "depressed by his mother's death ten years ago".

They are not sick people they are a cancer on society.

I am pie

Degsy wrote: »

They need to be shut down and theunds diverted towards proper healtcare..junkies falling foul of the legal system should be dealt with as criminals NOT as poor lost people who fell in with a bad crowd.

Your average Joe Shmoe gets 4 years for hitting somebody outside a pub whereas a junkie with 54 previous convictions gets off with a suspended sentence because he was "depressed by his mother's death ten years ago".

They are not sick people they are a cancer on society.

Think that through. Fine, we arrest them all. Prisons are overcrowded to the extent that we are actually sanctioning early release. We haven't a pot to p1ss in, so you can rule out building all those new prisons we'd actually need.

Unless you try and treat the addiction they will come out as addicts, or certainly return to addiction. What then? Lock em up again? ...in what, a boat moored of Rockall? We run out of capacity and money pretty sharpish.

What we want is less addicts. I'm not interested in the touchy-feely stuff, but in tangible outcomes. How do you stop an addict from being an addict? I'm not sure, but i'm pretty sure we haven't the money or capacity to lock them all up and we haven't a proper treatment system in place.

You're solution doesn't work as far as i can see as it ignores practical realites in terms of capacity & funding.

If we make it legal and hand it out in clinics out of town we reduce crime and we reduce the cost of housing them in criminal institutions en masse. We impose 10 to 15 year sentences for anyone who go outside of the legal dispensing centres?

hardCopy

They often hang around on the corner beside the 130 bus stop. They aren't even quiet about it, you'll hear them shouting back and fourth about who's got what (various doses of Benzos when I asked a local cop what they meant)

They drift up and down from one corner to another when the cops arrive. These characters will likely have dozens or hundreds of convictions each, if the cops spent all day chasing them they'd never have any time to deal with muggers, pickpockets, shoplifters etc, these are the crimes people scream loudest about.

There aren't enough cops to spend all day rounding them up, the judges won't give them harsh enough sentences and if they do there's no room for them in prison.

CavanCrew

Im fairly pessimistic about the whole thing, cant see anything happening unless drastic changes are made... which is highly unlikely given the lax attitude.