Revealed: Cocaine found in nine out of 10 pubs

COCAINE is the most available illicit drug, with traces of it found in nine out of 10 pubs and clubs across the country.

Researchers who tested 269 pubs, clubs and other venues including social, cultural and sporting events found 92% of the venues tested positive for traces of cocaine.

Dr John Fox, the head of forensic science at Dublin Institute of Technology, analysed the tests for RTÉ’s Prime Time Investigates.

“These techniques that we use for the analysis are exactly the same techniques that a forensic scientist would use going into court,” he said. The results of more than 1,200 tests indicate cocaine is being widely used across Irish society.

The Prime Time Investigates programme, to be screened tonight at 9.30, shows how people casually and routinely use cocaine.

One middle-class user, called David, said in some pubs there were so many people taking cocaine that there was a waiting period of 10 to 15 minutes to get into the bathroom.

And a cocaine dealer, called Anthony, said he did not think people who took the drug cared that they were taking part in a criminal activity.

The government’s leading drugs adviser Des Corrigan said he was surprised that people were amazed there were deaths caused by cocaine.

Dr Corrigan, a member of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, said: “There is a risk of the liver chemically converting the alcohol and the cocaine into a new drug called coca-ethylene, which lasts much longer in the body, increases the risk of heart attack and also increases the risk of violence.

“Alcohol fuels violence anyway and the chemical combination of this new drug makes the violence even worse,” he said.

Dr Corrigan said the forensic analysis conducted for the programme just gave physical expression to what the committee had said to the Government about the availability of cocaine right throughout the country, plus the fact that it was more widespread.

John Ryan, emergency medicine consultant at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, said they would see the adverse effects of cocaine use on a daily basis.

He said they would see people who had suffered a heart attack, patients with strokes or brain haemorrhage and fatalities.

Prime Time also investigated the chain connecting the casual users of cocaine to the criminals that control the trade.

One dealer shown boasts about the quality of his cocaine and the quantity of drugs he can supply.

The programme also identifies one of the main figures behind the cocaine trade and supplies new information about his criminal activities.