Judge rounds on class view of drugs

The distinction, in the public eye, of drug use between middle-class young people and those in less affluent areas was highlighted by a sentencing judge yesterday.

Judge Gerard O’Brien said a sense of middle-class entitlement by young people looking for the “greatest high” formed the background to a Co Cork teenager’s death at an orgy of drink and drugs.

Teenager Alex Ryan paid the ultimate price by taking a so-called designer drug, N-bomb, at a Cork City party last January.