Three generations of families gripped by drug abuse

JaneEyre_A · 25-03-2011 12:25PM #1

Saw this today; and the i agree with the proposal to remove children from their parents care until they prove they can look after the children.

THE CYCLE OF drug abuse has gripped some Irish communities so viciously that three generations of families have now been affected by it.
Dermot King, director of the Ballymun Youth Action Project (BYAP), said that drug and alcohol problems have been passed down through each successive generation. The BYAP is the country’s longest-running community drugs project and marked the 30th anniversary of its foundation with a conference yesterday.
King said their work is more important than ever as the impact of drug misuse becomes compounded with each new set of young people caught up in it. He said:

We have witnessed an intergenerational pattern of drug misuse within some families in Ballymun, and similar patterns are being reported in other communities. In some cases, we are now treating the grandchildren of people who attended our service when it was first established 30 years ago.

Outside the impact on the families themselves, King noted that a community where drugs are a prominent issue experienced increased criminal activity, unemployment, poverty, ill-health and the “physical degeneration of neighbourhoods” as a whole.
King appealed for Government support of community drug projects. Pat Carey, then Minister for Community Affairs, told the Seanad last November that there were 464 people on waiting lists for opiate substitution treatment at that time. He confirmed that funding had been cut to some regional drugs task forces in 2009 and 2010 because of “the pressures on the public finances”.
The Irish Times reports today that social campaigner Fr Peter McVerry, who lives in Ballymun, said crack cocaine was now a problem in the area. He suggested that in the worst cases, children of drug-abusers should be removed from parents until they can properly take care of them.
“I’m just putting it out for debate”, he said, “I just see the children, young children, of ative drug-using parents and I just feel so sad for those kids.”

http://www.thejournal.ie/three-generations-of-families-gripped-by-drug-abuse-2011-03/

themadchef · 25-03-2011 12:38PM

I cant imagine how black the hole must be when youre a user. Intervention with the kids should be there (where both parents, and the childs life are in danger) The parents should also be supported in not only getting rid of the junk but in the rehab through the following years, job support, family support etc. ..and importantly community support.

Where are the social workers, where is the government? Who is going to protect the kids. This shouldint be something that's being proposed by a priest, it should be on going. Our system is so fúcked up though there are no facilities for the kids and even less for the poor egits addicted to the drugs in an endless cycle of poverty.

SEPT 23 1989 · 25-03-2011 01:03PM

The children should be taken off them at birth and given to good parents who are unable to have children

old hippy · 25-03-2011 01:08PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

The children should be taken off them at birth and given to good parents who are unable to have children

How about more money, facilities, amenities and education pumped into the area, rather than that?

bonzodog2 · 25-03-2011 01:16PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

The children should be taken off them at birth and given to good parents who are unable to have children

How will these good parents with no children be selected ?

SEPT 23 1989 · 25-03-2011 01:16PM

bonzodog2 wrote: »

How will these good parents with no children be selected ?

An egg and spoon race

orourkeda · 25-03-2011 01:17PM

facking junkies

orourkeda · 25-03-2011 01:18PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

The children should be taken off them at birth and given to good parents who are unable to have children

How are the sex lives of junkies to be controlled in such a way as to render them sterile?

SEPT 23 1989 · 25-03-2011 01:20PM

orourkeda wrote: »

How are the sex lives of junkies to be controlled in such a way as to render them sterile?

Chemicals added to the potions they consume would put an end to their sexing

Offy · 25-03-2011 01:22PM

orourkeda wrote: »

How are the sex lives of junkies to be controlled in such a way as to render them sterile?

Cut off their dangly bits!!! Brand them. Tattoo a serial number on their forehead and then send them off to live in a concentration camp!

SEPT 23 1989 · 25-03-2011 01:24PM

Offy wrote: »

Cut off their dangly bits!!! Brand them. Tattoo a serial number on their forehead and then send them off to live in a concentration camp!

But why go for such a soft option?

Degsy · 25-03-2011 01:26PM

The reason junkies beget other junkies is because the only thing in thier lives that matters to them is getting stoned.

They push kids around in buggies as they meet their dealers,sell drugs from prams,leave drugs lying around in front of kids while they goof off and send thier kids out stealing to get money for drugs.

They dont give a shiit about thier kids,thier parents,thier siblings or thier fairy Godmothers..the only thing on earth a junkie values is thier next fix..not the one they're taking now..the next one.

The fact that this lifestyle choice is paid for by the taxpayer is doubly galling.

old hippy · 25-03-2011 01:35PM

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

Overheal · 25-03-2011 02:00PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

The children should be taken off them at birth and given to good parents who are unable to have children

Yeah ask some psychologists how that will go.

enda1 · 25-03-2011 02:01PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

An egg and spoon race

Nice idea but they've no eggs or else they'd have children :rolleyes::p

iPlop · 25-03-2011 02:04PM

Most drug addicts never become 100% clean.To see that 3 generations have been affected by drug abuse raises the question...Should Junkies be sterilized?

genericguy · 25-03-2011 02:07PM

seriously, with the seizures of hundreds of kilos of heroin every year, surely we could poison it and send it out - the whole dirty, useless shower of pricks would be gone in a very short time. There's no fcking excuse for trying Heroin now, so anyone who gets hooked deserves to die. If my dog was that sick I'd put him down.

genericguy · 25-03-2011 02:07PM

The Incredible Fridge wrote: »

Should Junkies be sterilized?

No, junkies should be neutralized.

sbsquarepants · 25-03-2011 02:15PM

I think it's one of the saddest things you can see, a child being dragged up by junkie parents, it's heart breaking in fact.
My missus was in the supermarket the other day (ash wednesday to be exact) when an obviously out of it junkie, with a girl about 8 or 9 stopped her and asked "when is pancake tuesday?", she told her it was yesterday and the kid burst out crying saying "see, i told you it was ma".
I was actually close to tears when she told me, i fúcking hate junkies! What a shítty life to inflict on your child.

Pauleta · 25-03-2011 02:49PM

I really despair when i see young children with heroin addicts. Its odds on the that child will end up also being a burden to society. I dont understand why the state are not intervening more. The public want the state to intervene more often. We live in a democracy, why is the will of the people being ignored? A friend of mine had a heroin addict for a mother and a non existent father. Her life was going downhill right into her teens, until i think she just fell in with the right crowd, which is usually the opposite. She was placed in the care of her grandmother, along with a couple of her siblings. Other siblings were fostered (there were a lot of kids). It has been a success despite the hardship of a split family and must be done more often.

stovelid · 25-03-2011 02:53PM

Are we advocating this for wealthy celebrity junkies as well?

ScumLord · 25-03-2011 02:56PM

stovelid wrote: »

Are we advocating this for wealthy celebrity junkies as well?

No, by junkie they mean poor people that are totally safe for abuse and scorn. We're in the social class above them so they don't count as people to us.

old hippy · 25-03-2011 03:45PM

Pauleta wrote: »

The public want the state to intervene more often. We live in a democracy, why is the will of the people being ignored?

Sorry to cherry pick but is it democracy when the state intervenes?

Pauleta · 25-03-2011 03:57PM

old hippy wrote: »

Sorry to cherry pick but is it democracy when the state intervenes?

I feel that the majority of the public want these kids to be housed by either the state or by foster parents. I could be grossly misjudging public opinion but it seems like the most common opinion.

southsiderosie · 25-03-2011 03:58PM

stovelid wrote: »

Are we advocating this for wealthy celebrity junkies as well?

ScumLord wrote: »

No, by junkie they mean poor people that are totally safe for abuse and scorn. We're in the social class above them so they don't count as people to us.

The kids of wealthy people with drug problems have probably seen some messed-up stuff. But they aren't condemned to living in horrible neighborhoods; they aren't being dragged across the city in prams to score drugs at all hours of the day and night, and their parents will not have to rob and steal to feed their habit and they can afford their own rehab should they choose to get their life together.

It would be nice to see a thread on drug use that didn't descent into 'junkies are scum' ranting, but let's also be serious about the class element here: the people in question cannot take care of their children, but don't have the connections or resources to somewhat insulate their kids from the fallout of their addiction. There is a big difference between the kids of a heroin addict in Ballymun and the kids of a heroin addict in Beverly Hills.

Milky Moo · 25-03-2011 04:22PM

It breaks my heart to see tinytots in buggies dragged around town with their parents out of it.

I am a pretty liberal person and would be a great advocate for family but their situation isn't a family in any sense of the word! The kids should be taken away from them.

Don't heroin addicts get a special kind of dole like sickness benefit if they are on methadone? I may be mistaken, but if this the case the pill should be mandatory!

As for pumping more money into deprived areas I would be cautious. Of course these areas need help, but with so many hard working people who obey the law and arn't a drain on the society struggling these days how is it justified to increase spending in an area which seems to be a money pit? I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

iPlop · 25-03-2011 04:26PM

Milky Moo wrote: »

It breaks my heart to see tinytots in buggies dragged around town with their parents out of it.

I am a pretty liberal person and would be a great advocate for family but their situation isn't a family in any sense of the word! The kids should be taken away from them.
Don't heroin addicts get a special kind of dole like sickness benefit if they are on methadone? I may be mistaken, but if this the case the pill should be mandatory!

As for pumping more money into deprived areas I would be cautious. Of course these areas need help, but with so many hard working people who obey the law and arn't a drain on the society struggling these days how is it justified to increase spending in an area which seems to be a money pit? I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

You're not mistaken, they're on disability benefit and there's a free bus pass too.Forced sterilization should be part of the deal as well.

old hippy · 25-03-2011 04:28PM

Milky Moo wrote: »

It breaks my heart to see tinytots in buggies dragged around town with their parents out of it.

As for pumping more money into deprived areas I would be cautious. Of course these areas need help, but with so many hard working people who obey the law and arn't a drain on the society struggling these days how is it justified to increase spending in an area which seems to be a money pit? I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

It's a vicious circle. If you exist in the margins, have no prospects and are constantly under fire from "hard working people", is it any surprise you begin to despair and become part of the circle of poverty and drug abuse.

I don't advocate the lifestyle but I understand it.

25-03-2011 04:30PM

I think it's one of the saddest things you can see, a child being dragged up by junkie parents, it's heart breaking in fact.
My missus was in the supermarket the other day (ash wednesday to be exact) when an obviously out of it junkie, with a girl about 8 or 9 stopped her and asked "when is pancake tuesday?", she told her it was yesterday and the kid burst out crying saying "see, i told you it was ma".
I was actually close to tears when she told me, i fúcking hate junkies! What a shítty life to inflict on your child. .

Not having pancakes on the designated day, a crime beyond crimes. Sickening. The poor child.

Offy · 25-03-2011 04:30PM

The Incredible Fridge wrote: »

You're not mistaken, they're on disability benefit and there's a free bus pass too.Forced sterilization should be part of the deal as well.

Can we have forced sterilization for discriminant twats also? I for one dont want to live in a cuntry full of hate filled people. You know the type that thinks their sh1t dont smell.

sbsquarepants · 25-03-2011 04:38PM

The Incredible Fridge wrote: »

You're not mistaken, they're on disability benefit and there's a free bus pass too.Forced sterilization should be part of the deal as well.

Bit harsh don't you think?
I mean where do you draw the line? Is it just heroin junkies, or should alcoholics (for example) be sterilised too, i know a couple of alcoholics and to be perfectly honest they are no better than the average junkie, it's just a change of addiction - the kids couldn't care less, they just wish their parents were nicer people.
It's all well and good to come out with sterilise them, hang them, boil them in oil and all that shíte, but it's not very realistic!

Three generations of families gripped by drug abuse

Comments