Drugs

Living in Ireland with a Crack Cocaine Epidemic

What would you do?

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Hello from Ireland. It’s raining, at last, after a long dry spell. We are in an ecological emergency.

We are also in an epidemic of addiction.

Ireland (and Scotland, where I come from) have long suffered from high levels of addiction. Collective historical trauma, and social repression (particularly, until very recently, by the Church, which included, among many other ills, forced adoption and homophobia), are two of the main culprits.

Yesterday, someone close to me received a series of messages that included threats of violence, including threats to break bones and throw acid in the faces of their children, and violence to them, if money was not paid.

The threats (via two phone numbers) included references to the children’s addresses and to the address of my friend. None of the people involved wanted to go to the Gardai (the state police force of the Irish Republic) because they felt this would escalate the danger posed by the threat.

At the heart of this is one of the children (both of whom are over 18) is addicted to alcohol and now, it seems, to crack cocaine. That person is particularly resistant to going to the Gardai.