Drug crime hotline empowers ordinary people

A new drug crime hotline will take away the sense of powerlessness felt by people living in drug-affected areas in Dublin, it was claimed today.

People in Finglas and Cabra can ring the hotline to notify gardaí about illegal drug dealing in their area.

The local Drug Task Force said it would give people back a sense that they could take action about drug dealing in their neighbourhood.

“They might see something small and they want to do something but they’re scared about the consequences. They will be able to do something directly rather than just ignoring it,” said co-ordinator John Bennett.

The hotline was piloted in the Cabra area last year at the request of local community groups and resulted in a number of drug seizures and arrests.

It will be operated from Finglas and Cabra garda stations and will be monitored continuously.

Minister of State Noel Ahern, who launched the drug crime hotline at Finglas Civic Offices, today said it would provide more sets of ’eyes’ for the Gardai.

“In many cases, the information might not be totally relevant but it might lead to a piece of the jigsaw falling into place.”

The hotline will be extensively advertised in the area on leaflets, posters, shopping bags and beermats.

Mr Bennett said it was only one element in the local Drugs Task Force’s program, which was set up in 1997 to deal with heroin addiction in the area.

“We’re not involved in an American-style war on drugs. We’re also involved in treatment and we work very hard on providing methadone treatment, counselling and rehabilitation,” he said.

Since 1997, two drop-in support centres have been set up in the area, as well as needle exchange programmes.

Mr Bennett said the various agencies involved in the task force had made a lot of inroads.

“The heroin situation has stabilised – there are not big floods of people taking it up now. And in the past there were no drug treatment services in the area at all. Now we can say there is help for people.”