Casual drug users are the 'driving force' of gangs and gun attacks

Community activist Philip Jennings talks to Cormac O'Keeffe about the link after the Christmas Eve shooting

Philip Jennings, coordinator of Safer Blanchardstown. 'When I refer to the ‘drugs issue’, I am referring to all of it – whether it’s addiction, intimidation, recreational drug use, importation, gun crime, all the criminality that goes with drugs,” Philip said. “It’s all part and parcel of the package.' Picture: Moya Nolan

People having a spliff or a line of cocaine at the weekend cannot wring their hands at the Christmas Eve gun attack on a restaurant in Blanchardstown and think it has nothing to do with them.

Such is the view of a Philip Jennings, a long-time community activist in the west Dublin suburb.