Big problems in small towns: Rural Ireland has a problem with cocaine

Ann Murphy reports on how cocaine has moved from being a problem that was largely confined to more urban areas to become an increasing scourge in towns and villages across the country.

A line of cocaine is now a central part of any night out or celebration in Ireland, urban and rural, according to users, gardaí, academics and addiction counsellors. Picture: Maura Hickey

Phone? Check. Bank card? Check. Keys? Check. Cocaine? Check.

A typical checklist for many people as the country celebrates St Patrick’s weekend properly for the first time in three years.

Garda sources say this week is traditionally a busy one for dealers, as revellers prepare for a big weekend of celebrating the return to normality.

They will very likely turn to their social media accounts and order their fix through apps such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and TikTok. They won’t even have to take their wallet out to pay their dealer; paying online with apps like Revolut makes a drug purchase quick, clean and discreet.

A line of cocaine is now a central part of any night out or celebration in Ireland, urban and rural, according to users, gardaí, academics and addiction counsellors.

‘ACROSS THE BOARD’

When Motion 34 came before the GAA Congress in recent weeks, it was down to the concerns of a Laois club chairman about cocaine use among a cohort previously not believed to have used drugs.

Tim Barry of Rathdowney-Errill club was moved to bring a motion to congress about substance abuse within GAA clubs after two recent incidents.

The motion, which has been referred to the GAA’s community and health committee from Congress, proposed that all players who wish to participate in an adult championship match must have completed courses approved by Central Council on Alcohol, Gambling, and Substance abuse (AGSA) and Anti-doping Education in that Championship year or the preceding one. Failure to do so would lead to a one-match suspension.

Tim Barry is keen to stress that he doesn’t believe cocaine use is a problem specific to the GAA.

“It is a problem in rural areas in a big, big way. We have a very well-educated generation now and they are taking this stuff and buying it off criminals and God knows what they are mixing it with, and they are then shoving it up their noses. So-called smart people are doing it.” 

Former Galway hurler and now addiction counsellor Justin Campbell agrees. He says: “We are in a phase at the moment where clubs are beginning to see the impact of cocaine use. The optics of it is that it is a big problem in the GAA but it is not really. 

"It is because of it being health and well-being and the GAA are outspoken about it on some level but in actual fact, it is across the board with young people, in sport or out of sport.” 

Tim Barry says he is aware of a recent incident where a group of GAA players were drinking in a pub. A man pulled into the pub’s car park and was selling drugs to some of the players.

He adds: “This is what really annoys me, and the fella that was selling the stuff was a wealthy individual. The money that is in this is unbelievable. 

I know of another incident involving a group of lads and lassies who were sitting in a pub around a fire in the winter and they decided to have a go at cocaine. They just had to make one call and five minutes later, a man was outside the door with the stuff.

He has health concerns about players taking a mood-altering drug like cocaine on a Saturday night and going out and playing a match the following morning.

Justin Campbell echoes similar concerns, saying: “Imagine sitting into a car and driving 50 miles to come to training and 50 home, twice a week, and playing a match at the weekend, and putting ‘white powder’ up their nose Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The players somewhere along the line need to stand up and say what is acceptable and what is not.” 

He is currently preparing a presentation for GAA clubs on the issue, following approaches from some clubs that are concerned about the rise in cocaine use. And while he supports moves to address the issue, he has some concerns about the wording of Motion 34 brought by the Rathdowney-Errill club.

He explains: “The concern I have is that a conversation needs to be had on the issues around cocaine. There are massive issues around people in their 30s and 40s as well using cocaine – it is not just young people. I would be concerned about the administration and making it mandatory and having a suspension – it just seems to be on the severe side.” 

However, he says every club should keep their eyes open, “not to try to find somebody and penalise them, but that if someone does get into trouble, that there is some form of a pathway for that person to be supported and helped.” He and Tim Barry are not the only ones to highlight concerns about the use of cocaine by GAA players.

In Wexford, Shelmalier GAA Club hosted a Drugs Awareness Night earlier this month for the local community. Club secretary John Banville says that the club has also initiated four senior players – two female and two male – to be drug awareness liaison officers. He says they are preparing for the day when someone will have a difficulty and are “trying to do our best to serve the community”.

Former Galway hurler Justin Campbell is an addiction counsellor in Galway and Athlone. "The players somewhere along the line need to stand up and say what is acceptable and what is not.”  Photo: Ray Ryan

In recent weeks, the chairman of the Leinster Council, Pat Teehan, highlighted the issue at the Leinster convention.

He tells the Irish Examiner: “I am living in Birr and am aware that it is readily available for young people. I am not saying it is an epidemic or anything but it is a concern. There is no point in locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. Now is the time, before it becomes such a serious issue.” 

He acknowledges that not all drug users end up becoming addicted. “It is the ones that it does affect …. It’s the fact that you can take it as well without people knowing you are taking it. That brings a secret element to it. It is a bit like the gambler doing it on his phone.” 

He says there is a view that people are not doing any harm and they are “only doing a few lines of coke”. He adds every organisation should be concerned about it, not just the GAA.

He says: “We have a GAA substance usage policy and I urge every GAA club to ensure they have adopted that. That in itself won’t do an awful lot. But what it will do is that it will focus a club’s mind.” He also feels it is important to let GAA members know where support is available for people who are in the grips of drug use.

He recommended a poster campaign in every clubhouse and dressing room in the country in relation to drugs awareness. He has been in touch with the GAA’s community and health manager, Colin Regan, in Croke Park and says he intends to raise the issue again shortly with the GAA.

In a statement, Colin Regan said the issue was well-debated during the organisation’s recent Congress.

He says that substance use is a societal issue that the GAA has been working with the HSE on since 2006, to educate its members, and that work continues with the local and regional drug and alcohol task forces. 800 clubs currently have an active substance abuse policy in place.

“Such a policy-based approach to drug and alcohol education has been strongly evaluated and promoted by the Good Sports programme in Australia, one of the leading countries in the delivery of health promotion through sport. This work by the GAA is unprecedented in an Irish sporting context.”

INCREASE IN ADDICTION TREATMENT

There has been an increase in presentations for treatment for cocaine addiction in Ireland, according to the National Drug Treatment Reporting System 2014 – 2020 Drug Treatment Data report. The report was published by the Health Research Board last July. 

It highlighted that while opioids remain the most common drug among cases treated for problem drug use in Ireland, the number of cocaine cases continues to increase. According to the report, cocaine was the primary issue for one-quarter of cases treated in 2020.

A total of 2,619 people were treated for problem cocaine use in Ireland in 2020 - more than three times the number of cases reported in 2014 (853 cases). The report also highlighted that, for the first time, cocaine was more common than alcohol and benzodiazepines as an additional problem drug among cases reporting polydrug use.

And in January, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety published its 2020 report, which highlighted that the number of tests of motorists detecting cocaine in drug-driving cases almost trebled - from 535 in 2018 to 1,494 in 2020.

The report noted that the increase in cocaine detections “is notable and is clearly out of step with the trends for the other drugs”. Polydrug use is a huge concern for road policing units, with some motorists driving under the influence of a number of drugs simultaneously, including cocaine, cannabis, and heroin.

Michael Guerin of Bruree House, Limerick, says cocaine came back with a ferocity that nobody anticipated after the lull of the economic crash. Photo: Brian Arthur

The Road Traffic Act 2016 gave gardaí stronger powers on the roadside, allowing them to require a driver to provide a sample of oral fluid, where previously only a breath test was required. The offence of drug-driving carries a minimum one-year driving ban, but judges can use their discretion to ban drivers for longer. They can also impose a €5000 fine and a six-month prison sentence.

Tipperary-based Chief Superintendent Derek Smart says: “Every second or third driver we are stopping now is under the influence of a drug. It is as high as that in a lot of areas. Cocaine and cannabis are the main two.” Justin Campbell sees an increase in cocaine use in rural Ireland through his work.

“It was only small pockets in towns and cities where cocaine would be on the rise. 

But now, as a client said to me the other day, it is easier to get cocaine online than it is a pizza. They are using social media to get it. 

He is shocked by the availability of the drug: “You are nearly in the minority when you walk into some pubs if you are not using it. And when smart, educated kids are going in and using it…” 

Michael Guerin, a senior addiction therapist at Cuan Mhuire in Bruree, Co. Limerick, agrees and says that cocaine use in Ireland is “back with a bang” after a break in the years after the economic crash.

He says: “We were doing lots of cocaine as a nation up to 2010 until everybody went broke and then there was a lull. But cocaine came back with a ferocity that nobody anticipated and the truth is that nobody anywhere can say the extent to which cocaine is being traded, recreationally used or abused in Ireland. Nobody has a clue.” 

Dr Sharon Lambert from UCC’s School of Applied Psychology acknowledges that most people who are recreational users do not end up in addiction services.

But she says there are risks associated with drug use, even on a recreational basis, on a health level, but also from the point of view of getting a criminal record. She points out that a criminal record relating to drugs could have an impact on future employment and travel plans.

And she warns: “Another risk is the unknowns of where substances have come from and the quality and content of those substances. Research has shown that the ‘say no to drugs’ campaigns are ineffective, for a whole host of reasons, particularly for the adolescent and young adult cohorts. Providing harm-reduction information is considered best practice.” 

Dr Sharon Lambert of the School of Applied Psychology, UCC, believes providing harm-reduction information is best practice in campaigns targetting adolescents and young adults on the dangers of cocaine use. Photo: Denis Minihane

Dr Lambert queries however whether the current drug policies in Ireland are working, considering the increase in recreational use of drugs like cocaine.

She says: “The increase in recreational use does indicate that current policies are not working in terms of reducing the volume of substances circulating in communities. Despite the huge and ever-increasing amount of money that has been spent on law enforcement in the area, the issue has just continued to increase. 

"One of the dangers with this is the control that the illegal market has in terms of quality and distribution. Many drug policy researchers would argue that this increases the risk of harm.” She points out that Ireland has the fourth-highest level of drug-related deaths in the EU, with almost two people dying in Ireland every day because of drugs.

CRIMINAL INTENT

A rural cocaine user is never more than one or two degrees of separation from the criminal gangs that have wreaked death and destruction in urban areas for decades.

According to Michael Guerin: “The criminal justice system in Ireland is not getting near the individuals that actually control cocaine supply. They are probably not even in the country. The people that control this industry are, in all likelihood, outside the jurisdiction and de facto untouchable.” 

One factor that many users do not account for when they begin using cocaine is the criminals they are buying from – and what can happen when a deal goes bad. Gardai say young people whose drug habits begin in college can end up bringing huge problems into their lives, and to their families’ front door.

Users are often given drugs on tick in the early days of their usage and face financial problems when the interest mounts up. 

One Garda source is currently aware of a family in rural Ireland whose teenage son has had to leave college after running up a large drug debt.

He believes the full extent of drug-related intimidation in Ireland is currently unknown because many families won’t come to gardaí to seek help; where they do come forward, they may have already handed over the money to meet their children’s debts, plus interest.

In some cases, users are forced to become involved in storing or delivering drugs for their dealers to work off the debt. Other cases have involved people becoming ‘money mules’, being asked to hold money in their bank accounts, leaving them open to criminal prosecution.

Inspector Dave Callaghan is the inspector responsible in West Cork for liaising with families who have been targeted in drugs-related intimidation. He says: “Everyone forgets about the intimidation associated with drugs. I can see that it is creeping up a bit more now in rural Ireland. 

If there are people out there who have difficulties, there is a nominated inspector in each division and they can be found on the garda website. 

While most of the cases of drug-related intimidation last year were in Dublin, the Regional Drugs and Alcohol Taskforces have said this is a “pressing issue” for many areas of the country.

Mr Guerin favours decriminalisation for simple drug possession cases but does not believe that drugs should be legalised or regulated. He outlines: “I would be emphatically against both. The simple illustration of how miserably legalisation and regulation of mood-altering substances has worked is the relationship we have with nicotine and alcohol, substances which are legalised, regulated and taxed.” 

But he believes that prosecuting people for possession of drugs for their own use has not worked in Ireland. He says: “We are decades prosecuting people for possession. We have been dealing with people in a punitive manner for decades and the one thing we know for sure is that it has not solved the problem.” 

He asks: “Is it fair that a young lad in Bandon or Skibbereen or Clonakilty, who was caught on a Saturday night with a bag of cocaine, would then have issues going to America or Australia, or in getting a job in a government department, or with a garda vetting paper to be a coach in his local GAA club when he gets to 40 years of age?

Superintendent Derek Smart: “Every second or third driver we are stopping now is under the influence of a drug." Photo: Brendan Gleeson

“That is the reality of having something as indelible as a conviction under the Misuse of Drugs Act on your record. It is not at all unusual for us to come across individuals who have fallen foul of the law and that was not necessarily a moral failing but rather driven by the very dire circumstances they found themselves in because of chemical dependence.” 

Mr Guerin says it is impossible to know how much cocaine is being taken or traded, or abused. But he continues: “In spite of the huge seizures of cocaine that we have seen, I have yet to have a client come to me and tell me that when they were in active addiction that supply was an issue.” 

He said that large seizures are not “even knocking a corner off supply”. Gardai say that there is a lot of cocaine in rural Ireland now, having moved out from its traditional stronghold of booming city centres. 

One garda source says nothing surprises him anymore regarding cocaine use in Ireland, pointing out the evolution of drug-dealing from traditional meet-ups where drugs were exchanged for cash, to social media transactions with online payment options as an example of how times have changed.

Chief Superintendent Smart says that people are turning to cocaine and other drugs as a cheaper option than going out for a night drinking alcohol.

Drugs and gangland

Drug user Jack says he thinks “all the time” about the link between his drug use and gangland violence.

But he says he does not “feel a shred of culpability for any of that”.

He adds: 

I am not the person pulling triggers up in Dublin, I am not the person dealing ‘China White’ to junkies on the street.

He sees himself as the non-stereotypical drug user who is a “comfortable, happy, financially secure, intelligent human being and doing a not-so-insignificant amount of drugs every day and I think that is not spoken enough about in society, particularly in Ireland.” 

The view of users like Jack concerns Chief Supt Smart because they do not see a connection between what they are doing on a night out and the violence and greed within Ireland’s gangland.

He continues: “I served between Dublin, Limerick, Kerry, Clare, Cork and now in Tipperary and everyone is experiencing the same problems – the non-connection between what has happened and what is happening on a daily basis and organised crime.

“People don’t seem to realise the money they are paying is going directly into that – it is putting people at risk between dealers and everything else, running up debts. There is a far bigger problem there for society.” 

Drugs counsellor Justin Campbell says the reality is that a percentage of people will end up getting into “serious bother” because of their cocaine use.

He adds: “This is in the post for us – sometimes it takes a couple of years to bed in. Someone might have an issue or a problem but it takes a while for the consequences to start mounting up. Somewhere along the line, we have taken our eye off the ball as far as cocaine is considered. 

"Where is this going to lead to? That would be my big concern for down the road. There were a number of unfortunate tragedies where people who were not addicted but took a combination of drugs on the night never come home. They go out for a night socialising and don’t come home.” 

Dr Lambert says it is regrettable that there is no plan for the holding of a Citizens Assembly on drugs use, which was included in the current government’s Programme for Government.

“Drug use in Ireland is a public health issue, that has huge personal, social and economic costs,” she says.