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Cocaine Destroying Rural Ireland

145791021

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 885 ✭✭✭scottser


    Young lads 18-25 just aren't into drinking and pubs. My nephew and his mates are in the gym all the time and play gaa, so saturday night they'll get a ball of coke, do lines in one of their houses and around 11 they're in the nightclub trying to pull. They'll drink water or minerals for the night. No beer, no crap food on the way home because they have a match to play next day.

    It's hard to criticise them because our own habits and judgements are questionable at times and they're more fully clued up on the risks than we are. On the other hand, my nephew is saving for a car right now so he was able to knock it on the head but he found it hard for the first while. Others aren't so disciplined (or lucky) unfortunately. I guess all you can do is be there for them when it goes pear-shaped, which it invariably will in most cases.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,588 ✭✭✭pgj2015


    Most of them would be far better off having a few drinks instead. some of them probably do coke before the gym as well. 😌



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,457 ✭✭✭SharkMX


    My cousins family stilling the hospital now waiting for him to wake up over a week after a cocaine hit. They keeps saying its his first one - its not.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,220 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,636 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    ..again, peer pressure is extremely complex....

    I'll make it simple for you, you're an idiot for taking it. Jump off a cliff just because jumping off cliffs is cool and my daddy and mammy doesn't like it.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,220 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    so are all of us that bowed to other social pressures all idiots? theres nothing simple about human behavior, particularly amongst ours peers, we all want to be a part of a group, to be accepted, this sometimes means we behave in ways that are not the norm, that is not healthy for ourselves, or for those around us, its a part of the human experience....



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,906 ✭✭✭Flaneur OBrien


    I think it’s more than fair to say, the majority of people on this Earth are idiots.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,220 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    we can and do idiotic things from time to time, including ourselves, its just a part of the gig, none of us are getting out of here without doing something stupid at some stage....



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    People jump off cliffs if they're suicidal, they take coke for enjoyment, big difference. Legendary rock stars, Hollywood actors, supermodels, senior business people, high profile media personalities have taken it, there's evidence William Shakespeare took cocaine. Yeah right, complete idiots.



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    The CPAD tried that a few years ago in Dublin. It was said heroin was a "Dublin only" problem, now it's nationwide. They failed miserably. I live in Dublin too and it's news to me that cocaine is causing the problems you describe. Any users I know, work, play sports, gym etc, they're not wanted by the police.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 449 ✭✭L.Ball




  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    Yes, it is ok, it's their bodies their choice. If the same people robbed, assaulted you or committed crimes that involve a non-consenting victim, I'd agree with your description. I repeat, The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Diego Maradona took it and they're regarded as Gods, not scumbags.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,636 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    You really don't understand what an idiom is. I think we are done here.



  • Registered Users Posts: 449 ✭✭L.Ball


    anyone who considers these people "gods" really has shoveled way too much of that sh*t up their noses. no different from a child's rationalization of bad behaviour "but the other kids were doing it too", not gonna ask if those you named stuck their hand in a fire would you because I'd probably get another "their body their choice" response.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,294 ✭✭✭✭Ash.J.Williams


    Of course they're would, you just read that somewhere



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    Many non-coke users have high praise for those legends. Maradona's "Hand of God" jersey sold for 9 million dollars. Liverpool is practically a shrine to the Fab Four, you fly in to John Lennon airport, Paul McCartney received a knighthood, then go to Mathew Street and you also pay for a bus tour which commemorates their origins before they became international idols. Compare that to scumbag Jimmy Saville, whose family had his headstone removed because of his nefarious activities. Why do you call cocaine sh*t, have you ever wondered why it's roughly worth its weight in gold.



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    I've a rough idea, "kicking the bucket" doesn't literally mean that. You don't seem to understand the definition of idioT, if you believe they're the only people who take cocaine.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭Quitelife


    Alan Shatter of Fine Gael has to take a lot of credit for the roll out of Drugs , Cocaine in particular In Rural Ireland when he closed & Downgraded so many Garda Stations all over the Country in 2010 .

    This concided with the roll out of Cocaine in Rural Ireland , largely controlled by the travelling community who have struck fear into every corner of the country with their Drug debt collection tactics often resulting in Suicides & Mental breakdowns of parents with no trace of guards to help communities & most Politicans dont care - County Limerick been a great example .



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,964 ✭✭✭John_Rambo


    Or mechanics, plasterers, printers, designers, architects & doctors. In fact people have no business taking cocaine. Farmers are no different.

    It's a **** show. Thankfully not affecting my family or peers.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,481 ✭✭✭BrianD3


    I seem to remember a thread in AH about members of "travelling" drugs gangs pulling out people's teeth with a pliers over unpaid drug debts. Anyone who racks up such a debt with such individuals is deserving of some sort of darwin award. It's one thing succumbing to peer pressure to do something silly, it's quite another to do something utterly stupid. Dabbling in cocaine because others are doing so falls into the latter category. Of course everyone who dabbles thinks that addiction, drug debt and amateur dentistry won't happen to them, just other people. Human weakness and stupidity.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,659 ✭✭✭SuperBowserWorld


    There is no such thing as rural Ireland. Small country, everyone connected by road and internet. Also, I am not sure we are even a nation. Just a dog eat dog economy, where everything is rosy so long as you are milking it.

    Alcohol destroying Ireland for ever, long before cocaine, and it's advertised all over the place and flaunted and advertised as something to be proud of by various drinks companies who steal symbols of this nation.

    Edit ...

    A lot of anger in this post. But we are like babies as a nation. Any kind of addiction and we are on it like flies to ****. Any time there is money in the economy we piss it away.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,588 ✭✭✭pgj2015


    It's cooler now not to take coke, same as not getting tattoos.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,659 ✭✭✭SuperBowserWorld


    Coke Zero doesn't taste bad at all.



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    Cocaine existed in Ireland long before those Garda stations were closed. I'm not a fan of Alan Shatter but it's wrong to blame him for the popularity of cocaine. Btw I never bought any illegal drug from a traveller, settled people sell them too.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭Quitelife


    Well in most parts of rural Ireland travellers control the drug trade & towns and villages , if your area isn’t controlled by them count yourself lucky !!



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    People have no business to judge others on what they put into their bodies. It's the LAW on cocaine that affects us all adversely. If I snort a few lines tonight alone, nobody would know about it, if I burgled their homes, they would. Police/courts/governments prioritise preventing/punishing the former instead of the latter. Utter madness.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,684 ✭✭✭Doctor Jimbob


    I think cocaine is an awful drug and I have no intention of ever going near the stuff. That being said, I don't think judging or criminalising people who choose to take it is the solution. We've tried that. It's not working. Time to try something new. People need to be able to test their drugs or seek help for addiction without fear of being judged by their community or facing legal action.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,964 ✭✭✭John_Rambo


    Lol! - "Cocaine doesn't affect anyone but the user" said the addict that's snorting up something that was imported in a condom up a drug mules anus.. Never mind the prostitution, guns, gang warfare etc that goes hand in hand to allow middle class Tomaldo his few lines after a round of golf.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,059 ✭✭✭randd1


    Make it legal. Allow pharmaceutical companies to produce it to varying levels of effectiveness. Allow it to be then sold in registered establishments. Use the taxes raised by the VAT on it to fund treatment centres.

    Or

    Keep it illegal. Allow the criminal gangs to cut it with who knows what. Have it sold who knows where and by who. Spend millions every year trying to stop a tsunami with a kitchen towel. Keep viewing users as degenerates.

    We're not losing the battle against cocaine and drugs in general, we've completely and utterly lost the war, we just haven't accepted it yet. Our policy is similar to Comical Ali saying everything is fine while tanks roll into the background.

    And all because people decide to put something into their own bodies, a decision which should be theirs and theirs alone.

    As for the argument, it's not them they do the damage to, well alcohol and gambling are as destructive and perfectly legal. I'd rather walk past a few lads enjoying a few joints than a few lads roaring drunk. You'd likely lose the house quicker to gambling than a drug debt.

    We've tried the ban it and shame it approach, and the Irish public has emphatically said "FU*K YOU, we love our drugs", and that position isn't going to change. Drug use, prescription and illegal, are in every part of the country, in every family. You're likely to talk to or see someone today who by the end of this weekend will have taken cocaine or smoked a joint.

    It's time to give the legislation, regulation, taxation and education approach a shot.

    Yes, we'll see addicts, but we have them anyway. The country is so awash with drugs that legalisation won't change that much. But it might be the taxes we raise combined with the money we don't waste trying to stop the unstoppable might provide the services those addicts need.

    And of course, the less jail spaces taken up by drug users can be filled by those who commit serious crimes against others.

    At this stage, for every argument against legalisation, there's multiple arguments for it.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    Ha! If you're so against gang warfare, why don't you support legalisation, instead of judging people on their lack of "morality". One of the reasons I favour a change of the law is because there would be hygiene standards in its production, so that it wouldn't have to come from someone's anus. "Middle class", I was born in a tenement type flat, I live in a council estate and I never play golf. I'm also not an addict, I last took it at Christmas (2022). I support the legalisation of prostitution, as long it involves consenting ADULTS, but that's probably for another thread.

    Post edited by Tomaldo on


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,089 ✭✭✭Thespoofer


    ...



  • Registered Users Posts: 449 ✭✭L.Ball


    Cool, legalize it, because cigarettes are legal and there's no black market.... oh wait....

    But we've tried criminalizing it and it hasn't works.... except we haven't, criminal justice system in this country is a joke and dealing in broad daylight has been commonplace for decades.

    "Don't just people... except the people I judge, they're bad". I'm gonna pop out, commit a bunch of murders and rapes, but don't judge me, because you don't know my story and background ok?

    Ultimately the Irish are a hedonistic and short-sighted people, who have never had the capacity to undertake anything involving difficulty, usually because we f*ck it up so spectacularly and are always looking for a quick fix or something to to forget their troubles, so it's not surprising that we're one of the world leaders in substance abuse, and people will bend over backwards for ways to rationalize it.



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    There's a black market for cigarettes because the Government taxes them too highly here. In Spain they're less than half the price and in Gibraltar and other countries they're even cheaper. I recently paid 1.85 (euro) for 20 in Thailand, in Ireland they're about 15 euros. Murder and rape involve non-consenting victims, coke-users DO consent, they also get enjoyment from it. Nobody enjoys being murdered or raped. Those 2 crimes should always be illegal and condemned, regardless of the perpetrator's background.

    Post edited by Tomaldo on


  • Registered Users Posts: 483 ✭✭hymenelectra


    Nothing ever happens in isolation.

    Although vague, I would certainly be looking at the connection between the dramatic increase in drugs, especially in youth, as matched against the despairing position of youth in Ireland.

    So many normal things are under extreme duress, housing, healthcare, social mobility and so on.

    Makes sense to me that drug use increases as a coping factor against the shambles the country finds itself in. Which is an extremely dangerous combination.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,957 ✭✭✭kirk.


    You won't get them out of the business

    In the US the cannabis dealers on the darkweb are easily undercutting the shops cos they're not paying any tax and have little overheads

    Stronger product too usually, potency not regulated , that's what customer wants



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,906 ✭✭✭Flaneur OBrien


    If you’re suggesting customers want the strongest weed, you are very, very wrong.

    Dealers like supplying the strongest weed because they A: make more money off it from charging more per gram and B: prefer it as they have to import less for the same profit.

    If people wanted the strongest weed, you wouldn’t have very weak strains for sale in Amsterdam coffee shops, for example.

    It’s the equivalent of saying “people enjoy getting drunk, so therefore we should only sell spirits”. Sometimes a mild toke is just what the doctor ordered.



  • Registered Users Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Tomaldo


    A google search will tell you how many millions in taxes are raised where it's legal. That means less than 100 per cent of the market is controlled by criminals. Isn't that better than here where they have total (100%) control. You can also buy a Rolex (fake) cheaper than a genuine make, same with replica sportswear, sunglasses, designer brand clothes etc. Sleeping pills/benzos and Viagra are also sold on the black market, that doesn't mean we should ban the genuine/legally sold products. When America reversed their law on prohibition, criminals seemed to virtually disappear from the alcohol trade.

    Post edited by Tomaldo on


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,779 ✭✭✭✭AndrewJRenko


    So cocaine wouldn't have taken hold if we had more Gardai sitting behind desks in rural stations stamping passport forms? How did you work that out?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,964 ✭✭✭John_Rambo


    If you grew up in the flats you'd see what drugs to to communities Tom.

    Congrats on staying clean for almost two years. Keep it up.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,636 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    I've had my fun and that's all that matters, fvk the people who are exploited along the way so I can get my not so cheap thrill.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 449 ✭✭L.Ball


    well exploitation would end if drugs were legalized, just like Tea, Coffee, Chocolate & Textiles.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,951 ✭✭✭✭zell12


    There seems to be large drug finds all over the country everyday now, at airports, ports, roads, houses, fields… It's a wonder how we're not all permanently high

    Meanwhile a 'zombie' drug, Xylazine, is either here or incoming through vapes.



  • Registered Users Posts: 453 ✭✭BagofWeed


    Post edited by Boards.ie: Mike on


  • Registered Users Posts: 742 ✭✭✭foxsake


    well yes,

    its odd how one exploitation is bad and immoral , but others like our love of cobalt and cheap fashion is quite ok .



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,662 ✭✭✭drury..


    The gangs will still operate even if it's legalised

    You can see that in US where black market prices are way cheaper than shop and stuff is stronger



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,002 ✭✭✭ToweringPerformance


    Sad to see it absolutely everywhere these days. We went to my wife's work colleagues 50th birthday house party last weekend and people openly using it including the hosts themselves. Got stuck listening to some eejit waffling in my ear for 45 minutes about his view of the world whilst he was high as a kite. We made our excuses and left after an hour just intolerable bores.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,906 ✭✭✭Flaneur OBrien


    I'm sure they found you equally exhilarating…



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,002 ✭✭✭ToweringPerformance




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,636 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Ah yes, fast fashion.

    As loved by those preachy kids who were bunking off school to save the planet a short while ago and media treating them like heroes.

    All forgotten now.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,092 ✭✭✭Doc07


    As bad and exploitative as they are, do the big players in cobalt and fast fashion engage in routine murder of their rivals and innocent journalists , forced Labour of entire farming communities, buying of entire elections and planting bombs?



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