Heroin use on my Doorstep

the-macho-man

Myself and my girlfriend moved into an apartment on Dame St. We knew it would be noisy and might be woken up by drunk ppl at night but we were ok with that. However last night (our first night in the apartment) we looked out the window only to see a guy crouched on the ground injecting himself with I have to guess is heroin literally 4 ft from the front door of the building.

We spoke to a few Gardai a little while later when he was gone and they were saying theres a few drug clinics around the area.

Can anyone please let me know if this is common on Dame st? Or even what's the right thing to do if you see that happening?

Many thanks,
A worried Dublin noob.

harry Bailey esq

the-macho-man wrote: »

Myself and my girlfriend moved into an apartment on Dame St. We knew it would be noisy and might be woken up by drunk ppl at night but we were ok with that. However last night (our first night in the apartment) we looked out the window only to see a guy crouched on the ground injecting himself with I have to guess is heroin literally 4 ft from the front door of the building.

We spoke to a few Gardai a little while later when he was gone and they were saying theres a few drug clinics around the area.

Can anyone please let me know if this is common on Dame st? Or even what's the right thing to do if you see that happening?

Many thanks,
A worried Dublin noob.

Its commonplace on most of the busy streets in town sadly, not a lot you can do about it im afraid. Police can't really do much unless they catch them in possession of drugs.There are always plenty of addicts hanging around Dame St./Temple bar/Westmoreland St.There are a couple of clinics nearby and focus Ireland have a drop in day centre in the area.The addicts themselves, whilst not pretty to see,are generally harmless,you'll soon be like any other dub and just ignore them.If you walk around Dublin as a 'noob' on any given day, you'll see many strange things but you'll soon get used to it all,maybe even draw some entertainment value from the madness of it all.Some of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life have involved junkies in the city centre.

leinsterdude

everyone knows this is happening, did you not research the area, unlikely never to change, what a terrible location to live in, if you went a mile further out it would be much better.

spongebob89

This is happening but shouldn't be happening! Im always amazed at how our city centre is plagued with junkies unlike any other major cities.. Anyway my advice would be to stick it out and if it continues get back onto daft. Ie and move! Do research on the next area, ask for advice on this.

SpaceTime

I lived in Northern Spain and had similar experiences. Same or worse in Brussels too. I get harassed by junkies there especially near Gare de Midi (south station) which is the major transit hub for rail connections in and out of that city.

Drugs need to be dealt with in Dublin and it is bad but it's far from unique unfortunately.

The worrying bit in Dublin is lack of policing resources and poor quality / inadequate treatment schemes to get people off drugs. It's got to be a joined up thinking issue that tackles the high level dealers hard while treating the junkies as patients / victims of it.

The visible junkies are a symptom of powerful gangs and social deprivation it's as simple as that really.

I'm also probably not going to be popular for saying this but Ireland has a major issue with alcohol and drug abuse that's largely cultural. The UK has it to a major degree too. It's very visible in the way we drink to be off our faces drunk. It's an issue right across Northern European countries actually.

Ultimately it's about changing attitudes to drugs and alcohol and I see no evidence of that happening. You need to move towards moderate consumption.

English speaking and Nordic countries have a history of binge drinking followed by crack downs of prohibition and extreme regulation. It's about striking a healthy balance and none of us have achieved that.

Pragmatism is needed - people aren't going to just stop doing these things so you've got to educate them in ways of doing them safely and without causing social hardship. The Dutch ideas are about as logical as you can get on this. They're not actually mad, liberal, pro drugs policies - they're practical ways of regulating something that isn't stoppable really. They're just forward thinking enough to be able to realise that.

harry Bailey esq

SpaceTime wrote: »

Same or worse in Brussels too. I get harassed by junkies there especially near Gare de Midi (south station) which is the major transit hub for rail connections in and out of that city.

Jesus that place is sketchy.The visible drug problem in this town is here to stay,like it or lump it.Unless of course there was some kind of walking dead style cull organised but for obvious reasons that approach is a non starter.

pablo128

A pot of water poured out the window onto them should get rid of them.

harry Bailey esq

pablo128 wrote: »

A pot of water poured out the window onto them should get rid of them.

That was actually quite common in some of the corpo flats in town and in ballymun when I was growing up.Probably still goes on.

Konata

Yes, junkies are common in that area - anywhere around the very centre of the city really. It's not pleasant to see, but there's not an awful lot that you can do about it, as other posters have pointed out. The best advice is to ignore them. They are fairly harmless if you don't bother them. They generally keep themselves to themselves and only interact with 'others' if you purposely annoy them.

I'm afraid the only other advice is to move if you're not happy with the situation. They're not going to disappear from the area anytime soon and you'll unfortunately be wasting your time if you hope otherwise. Best of luck anyway!

spongebob89

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

That was actually quite common in some of the corpo flats in town and in ballymun when I was growing up.Probably still goes on.

^^^^^:D:D

Or one of mas spuds from the balcony

SpaceTime

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

Jesus that place is sketchy.The visible drug problem in this town is here to stay,like it or lump it.Unless of course there was some kind of walking dead style cull organised but for obvious reasons that approach is a non starter.

Yup Gare de Midi is one of those places you just exit to a taxi or metro ASAP! No chilling with a coffee!!
Phone & wallet in pocket and aware - no headphones!

the-macho-man

Thanks for the comments guys. Its good to know the general feeling is that they're harmless.

However surely they need to get money from somewhere though so I would expect a reasonable amount of robberies either from people on the street or from apartments. Has anyone experienced or heard of junkies attempting to rob people on the street?

FloatingVoter

the-macho-man wrote: »

Thanks for the comments guys. Its good to know the general feeling is that they're harmless.

However surely they need to get money from somewhere though so I would expect a reasonable amount of robberies either from people on the street or from apartments. Has anyone experienced or heard of junkies attempting to rob people on the street?

When they're stoned or getting there, they are no threat to anyone. The drunks spilling out of Temple Bar are more likely to be aggressive. A high junkie is as docile as a baby.
Handbag / iPhone snatches are the most they'll attempt - no direct confrontation involved. As an above poster hinted, no walking around with head buried in your smartphone etc. This weather there are enough idiots leaving tables unattended and adorned with phones etc. to keep them in gear. And mainly they stick to begging.
Just don't present as a target for them - "no, you don't smoke" and "no, you have no lend of 50c for a hostel, bud".

Big Nasty

As mentioned already they're generally harmless / too fooked up to be of much danger to you once you give them a wide berth. I've witnessed a few funny incidents from them myself. Most recent one was a junkie girl pulling out of a Roma Gypsy begger telling him to get up off his bleedin hole and stop begging when she knows well he has a house.

Rock 1234

Political correctness, general apathy and a lack of political drive to deal with the drug problem has allowed drug use to go out of control, what are all these treatment clinic's doing it seems the are just kicking the ball down the road,

There seams to be one law for one group of people and another for the rest of us, tough love is what is needed here which will allow these poor unfortunate people to get the help the need it's there basic human right, and it's my right and all the rest of the population to be able to live and walk around our cities and towns without the fear of been robbed or attracted, Bring back Lugs Branagan. !

Just because they're harmless doesn't mean that it's acceptable. I never saw junkies shooting up heroin in public until I moved to Dublin. It's horrible and disgraceful to think that our most popular tourist areas (Dame Street, O Connell Street, etc.) are crowded with them either selling/distributing them or using them in public without much action from the cops, who are ridiculously understaffed and unprepared to deal with the rising problem.

harry Bailey esq

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Just because they're harmless doesn't mean that it's acceptable. I never saw junkies shooting up heroin in public until I moved to Dublin.

Many things are unacceptable,but some things just won't change and you just have to bite your lip sometimes.The sad truth is that drugs and drug users are just part of inner city life.This is not unique to our own capital city,anyone whose been to Lisbon,Athens,Oslo or as another poster mentioned Brussels will know what I mean.

Ash.J.Williams

i don't think it's alarmist to say that dublin city centre has an obvious and unacceptable heroin problem. I'm not sure how we rate against other euro cities, but it's definitely more visible than anywhere i've been. in fact i'd guess we have a lot less junkies than other cities, we just encourage ours to use our city centre.

TallGlass

Just tell em to **** off somewhere else and shoot up and call the Garda. They will tell them the same, I wouldn't worry about them shooting up its the mess they leave after themselves blood and needles.

harry Bailey esq

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

Many things are unacceptable,but some things just won't change and you just have to bite your lip sometimes.The sad truth is that drugs and drug users are just part of inner city life.This is not unique to our own capital city,anyone whose been to Lisbon,Athens,Oslo or as another poster mentioned Brussels will know what I mean.

And it's this defeatest acceptance attitude that has made this problem as bad as it is right now - simply accepting it rather than trying to actually do something about it. It doesn't have to be the case. We allow it to be. Dublin today resembles Times Square, before they made it tourist friendly. What's stopping us from doing the same? Apart from a Garda commissioner and higher ups who just don't bother.

P_1

All you can really do in cases like this is to make the place as uncomfortable for them to shoot up as possible in the hope that they'll move elsewhere. Not advocating breaking any laws or anything but I'm sure you're a resourceful enough chap and you'll come up with a suitable idea.

InTheTrees

Deleted User wrote: »

And it's this defeatest acceptance attitude that has made this problem as bad as it is right now - simply accepting it rather than trying to actually do something about it. It doesn't have to be the case. We allow it to be. Dublin today resembles Times Square, before they made it tourist friendly. What's stopping us from doing the same? Apart from a Garda commissioner and higher ups who just don't bother.

Exactly.

With the right political will it can be cleaned up.

:mad:

harry Bailey esq

[Deleted User] wrote: »

And it's this defeatest acceptance attitude that has made this problem as bad as it is right now - simply accepting it rather than trying to actually do something about it. It doesn't have to be the case. We allow it to be. Dublin today resembles Times Square, before they made it tourist friendly.

I'm not being defeatist,I'm being realistic. And its silly to compare Dublin to New York.What would you suggest to address the problem?Shoot them all?

John_Rambo

[Deleted User] wrote: »

And it's this defeatest acceptance attitude that has made this problem as bad as it is right now - simply accepting it rather than trying to actually do something about it.

Boneyarsebogman there's plenty of thing you can do to help. I was involved in an inner city youth group that certainly led a good few kids down a better path than the one they were headed. If you want the name of the organisation and if your willing to be Garda vetted and if you have certain skill sets PM me and I'll give you the details.

AngryHippie

Rock 1234 wrote: »

Political correctness, general apathy and a lack of political drive to deal with the drug problem has allowed drug use to go out of control, what are all these treatment clinic's doing it seems the are just kicking the ball down the road,

There seams to be one law for one group of people and another for the rest of us, tough love is what is needed here which will allow these poor unfortunate people to get the help the need it's there basic human right, and it's my right and all the rest of the population to be able to live and walk around our cities and towns without the fear of been robbed or attracted, Bring back Lugs Branagan. !

Epic fail of an attitude

Ash.J.Williams

I feel bad for them to be honest. Every time i stumble upon an injector in the carpark in work, the first word from them is "sorry"...

InTheTrees

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

And its silly to compare Dublin to New York.What would you suggest to address the problem?Shoot them all?

??

They didn't shoot them all in new York.

??

harry Bailey esq

InTheTrees wrote: »

??

They didn't shoot them all in new York.

??

Ill say it again.THIS IS NOT NEW YORK.They didn't solve the problem in New York,they just moved it.Sure you'll often see people on this forum with all the answers,a popular one is to move all the clinics out to the suburbs,problem solved eh?Wrong.Plenty of addicts get their phy in the suburbs and head straight into town to beg or whatever else they get upto.

Help!!!!

We need these guys to come back & do a piece on the drug culture in Dublin

http://entertainment.ie/wtf/Watch-Carlow-town-residents-in-a-rage-after-Russian-TV-report-depicts-it-as-a-ghost-town/237910.htm

See Enda get up off his ar$e then when it starts affecting tourism

Lux23

Dame Street is really busy all the time so I think you would be safe enough from a robbery point of view. It is a pretty scummy thing to do though and we really need safe injection rooms to get people to stop doing this out in the open.

On a happy note, I would love a flat on Dame street, an ideal location for me. Hope you settle in soon and get used to your surroundings.

Dr_Bill

Unfortunately, Dublin city centre seems quite bad in recent times with junkies around the streets.

If it is not junkies it seems some people find it perfectly accepted to urinate in public in doorways etc. its disgusting, welcome to Irish society!

Lux23

Dr_Bill wrote: »

Unfortunately, Dublin city centre seems quite bad in recent times with junkies around the streets.

If it is not junkies it seems some people find it perfectly accepted to urinate in public in doorways etc. its disgusting, welcome to Irish society!

That is hardly an Irish thing, you see revelers peeing on the street in any city late at night.

Although I agree, there should be an on the spot fine for littering/urinating on the street - €250 at the very least.

nxbyveromdwjpg

spongebob89 wrote: »

Im always amazed at how our city centre is plagued with junkies unlike any other major cities...

Eh.. what?

Wurzelbert

InTheTrees wrote: »

??

They didn't shoot them all in new York.

??

nyc is an interesting example…”zero tolerance” can work…

Wurzelbert

nm wrote: »

Eh.. what?

there just seem to be so many junkies in dublin…the difference between dublin and pretty much every other (european) city i have seen in recent years is that in dublin junkies, beggars and all sorts of scumbags basically dominate the look and feel of large parts of the inner city…in most other cities they are confined to a few hotspots…

Greenmachine

Common as hell to see Dublin's drug addict banging up in broad daylight. I wouldn't agree with some other poster saying they are harmless. If you ever have to get a bus from westmorland street you will know how agressive some of the begging is. Strangely haven't had the same amount of hassle on O'Connell street or dame or other city centre bustops.
Hope you settle into your new place OP. Best way to deal with the aggressive begging is a blunt no, before they open their mouths.

harry Bailey esq

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

Ill say it again.THIS IS NOT NEW YORK.They didn't solve the problem in New York,they just moved it.Sure you'll often see people on this forum with all the answers,a popular one is to move all the clinics out to the suburbs,problem solved eh?Wrong.Plenty of addicts get their phy in the suburbs and head straight into town to beg or whatever else they get upto.

It's close enough. We have drug deals occurring IN OPEN. DURING THE DAY. IN OUR TOURIST AREAS. Do you think that is OK? I was once on a bus, on the top floor, and saw that there were two people shooting up in a car park of the city council building. They were getting high in a government building. A junky got decapitated under a bus during the height of Christmas. The Junkies walk around in public, off their faces in front of tourists. In front of families.

Are you telling me that all of this isn't bad? There needs to be a zero tolerance policy in the main tourist areas.

It's so odd how many people choose to remain ignorant and, instead, try to convince me that there isn't a problem. Really?

Rakish Paddy

Lux23 wrote: »

That is hardly an Irish thing, you see revelers peeing on the street in any city late at night.

Although I agree, there should be an on the spot fine for littering/urinating on the street - €250 at the very least.

Slightly off topic, but as bad as peeing in public is, I don't think it's fair to introduce a fine (especially if the pee-er has at least tried to use a quiet lane rather than a main street) until you put public toilets in place. I never understood why Ireland in general and Dublin in particular doesn't have them, but from this thread it sounds like they'd just be used for injecting drugs!

I believe there used to be loads of public toilets around the place, but they were pretty much all shut down when the drugs problem became worse. If I'm right, some of them had absolutely beautiful designs on them.

Augme

Deleted User wrote: »

It's close enough. We have drug deals occurring IN OPEN. DURING THE DAY. IN OUR TOURIST AREAS. Do you think that is OK? I was once on a bus, on the top floor, and saw that there were two people shooting up in a car park of the city council building. They were getting high in a government building. A junky got decapitated under a bus during the height of Christmas. The Junkies walk around in public, off their faces in front of tourists. In front of families.

Are you telling me that all of this isn't bad? There needs to be a zero tolerance policy in the main tourist areas.

It's so odd how many people choose to remain ignorant and, instead, try to convince me that there isn't a problem. Really?

That's because those people(me included) don't see it as a big problem. I couldn't give a **** if a junkie wants to wander around the streets high. It doesn't bother me and he doesn't stop me doing what I want. The last thing I want to happen is for the Guards to waste their resources rounding up every junkie who is high and arresting them.

Greenmachine

Deleted User wrote: »

I believe there used to be loads of public toilets around the place, but they were pretty much all shut down when the drugs problem became worse. If I'm right, some of them had absolutely beautiful designs on them.

Cant remember too much of the designs, but there used to be public toilet among other place in various places in Dublin, including St Stephen Green in the park, a penny saw you into the toilet in the 80's , On O'Connell street itself in the centre island. The junction of pearse and College green.
I remember Maynooth having toilets just off the main street(not dublin), which were known as "the thing".

MartyMcFly84

Most other European Countries have public toilets with staff and you pay a fee to use the toilets, 50c or something like that.

This prevents hammered people or junkies using the facilities, ensures they are clean and well maintained and not used for anything else.

Also if we provided injection rooms, and moved the needle and methadone clinics out of the city centre this would be a big start.

I see no need to provide junkies all the facilities they need right in the city centre. They travel in on public transport in the morning and stay using and dealing in the city centre all day. Personally I have seen them attack people unprovoked on the Luas, drop needles on buses and on the Luas, and on the street. It's absolutely disgusting and I have not seen it to the same degree in other places I have lived.

power pants

I think if there was more funding in social services, abortion was legalised and more educating regarding drugs from a very early in schools would go along way

Junkies breed and then they let their children do as they please as their parents are either dead, off their face, in prison or whatever. Their kids have no chance in life.

The social services here is undermanned and on reduced budget. If these kids were put into care/foster homes with proper stability and love, would have a better chance than watching their parents shoot up

if abortion was legal over here, it would offer one solution to some who blatantly dont want to be parents.

sterlization would be another alternative too for junkies can be temporary or permanent. Im not bothered.

Also provide testing when going for your social welfare payments, dirty and you get your benefits reduced.

reducing or cutting benefits might lead to the argument then that they will commit more crimes, but they are doing that anyway