Three hospitalised after using new liquid form of cocaine

Experts are warning about a new liquid form of cocaine after three people were hospitalised suffering from the effects of the drug.

All three were taken to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda and one was treated in the intensive care unit after overdosing on the drug.

It appears to be the first recorded use of liquid cocaine in the country.

Gardaí say that small quantities of the drug are being seized from time to time.

Director of Europe against Drugs Grainne Kenny said: It speeds up the heart to such a rate you get heart attacks, you get strokes, your blood vessels just explode.

"It causes paranoia, which causes great violence, which we see daily now on the streets, and of course violence in the home that we don't hear about," she said.