Cocaine Destroying Rural Ireland

noting our current prison capacity is at 112%, causing more and more dysfunctions, with more and more reoffending upon release….

That statistic alone shows we need more prison space

increasing sentences would also need a significant increase in general taxation in order to simply build more jails, and of course to run them effectively…

…so by all means advocate for raising taxes, im sure many will definitely support this!

Crime is a major concern. I think a party showing that they'll build the prison and stop the same scrotes walking the streets mere days after another bout of reoffending wouldn't be an unpopular move.

It is incredulous that a young person can have 30+ convictions prior to their 30th birthday and still be out on the streets. This goes to your point above on reoffending upon release; there's no deterrent there unless the crimes are serious. These people know the system and know the real limits.

Oh well, we done it somehow with alcohol and recent studies are not favorable when considering sugar and sugar addiction, some researchers are comparing it to opioids or cocaine addiction.

There was a time when you could go to jail in US for just having one cannabis joint and it simply did not work. Now most of the US legalized it. I would not go that far in a sense you can see examples quite closer - Netherland is not a country full of stoned people and Portugal which decriminalized hard drugs is not filled with junkies laying everywhere.

There is a way to cut enormous expenses of trying to police segment of population which will do drugs no matter how harsh penalties you impose. The more obstacles you put between them getting their fix the more incentives you create for other people who will try to make money supplying it. It is a circle which can not be broken.

Yep, they're just murdering and terrorising Mexicans with every line they do.

Maybe we're just in a phase where society is shifting from alcohol to drugs as their poison in preference?

Humans have used intoxicants of some sort since day one for various reasons. It'll always be here, people are always going to use them. So maybe all that's happening is the favourite choice of intoxicant is changing, for whatever reason.

To be honest, I'd rate the massive lack of cheap accommodation and cost of living as a bigger problem for young people in communities than cocaine use, or at least driving it.

My first flat was a tiny one bed, tiny bathroom, tiny kitchen/sitting room, I'd say at most 8m x 8m, poorly furnished, but liveable. It was also cheap as 5hit (I think €100 a week between the two of us, early 2000's), which meant I was able to move out and live independently at 18, get a handy job even if it was low paying, and enjoy life on the weekends with a few pints for €3-4 depending on.

€30 was fiver entry into a nightclub, a nice few pints and a bag of chips on the way home after a good night out. Ecstasy was available for €3-5 a pop if you fancied something with a bit more kick (I never once bothered with it, but was offered it). Cocaine wasn't needed at those prices. A part time job and cheap accommodation saw you having a bit of independence and a life.

Not a chance of anything like that ever happening now. Little wonder people are drawn to escapism, even if it's in powder form.

It's not a great argument though. There's black markets for everything but that doesn't mean there's no benefit in regulation. Cigarettes and diesel are good examples. They're legal with a strong black market, yet the vast majority of people still buy them legally. The government rakes in far more from their sale than any illegal seller and the scale of their black market is tiny compared to the drug market.

Legalisation wouldn't fix everything and needs a lot of careful thought. There's no perfect solution to this, but that doesn't mean there isn't a better approach. The mindset of not changing anything because it won't fix everything is crazy. The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect one and all that.

Its never going to be legalized. It's traded on the American dollar. If you think the yanks, especially the incoming administration, are going to allow a nice percentage of their GDP to be eradicated, you are dreaming.

Not when it comes to GDP. Money talks, Politics walks. The American establishment will never allow it to be legalized while their currency is the main source trading recipient. But yeah maybe in the future when the United States is no longer the global hegemon, then maybe it could change, but if you are looking at this product to be legalized while Uncle Sam still calls the shots, not going to happen. The cartels know this, hence why they solely trade on the American $

What's this got to do with cocaine? Don't see any mention of it in the article.

Has it been established if there was a Fentanyl link? The tabloids had mentioned it. Terrible tragedy.