The Health Minister has said more work needs to be done to make sure people are aware of the risks of cocaine use.
Simon Harris was speaking after Drogheda’s Garda chief warned that the country is “loaded” with cocaine.
Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan said the drug knows no social divide and is in use in every area of society.
He said it is time to tackle the issue as a national health problem.
🎧#PODCAST: "it's use seems to be destigmatized," Emergency Medicine Physician Jason Van Der Velde speaks with @AndreaGilligan on Ireland's rampant cocaine use. https://t.co/uahxD3R3z5@WestCorkRR pic.twitter.com/05fAZRu8Uo
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) May 13, 2019
Simon Harris says awareness is the issue:
“I think we need to do an awful lot more when it comes to making our citizens aware of the risks of drugs from their own health perspective,” he said.
“Not just the risk of being on the wrong side of the law but actually being on the wrong side of your own health, your own wellbeing and indeed, being around for your family into the future.
“My colleague Minister Catherine Byrne is leading an initiative in relation to this.
“The national drug strategy talks about taking a health-led approach to drugs and she will be bringing forward a number of proposals to Government in the coming weeks.”
The Health Minister Simon Harris. Image: RollingNews
De-stigmatised
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Jason Van Der Velde, Emergency Medicine Physician at Cork University Hospital and West Cork Rapid Response said the use of cocaine knows no boundaries.
“Its use seems to be de-stigmatised as well and certainly a drug like cocaine crosses absolutely no boundaries,” he said.
“From the very affluent to the very socially deprived, cocaine really is affecting all levels of society.”
"Absolutely rampant"
He said the drug is “absolutely rampant” in Ireland and right across Europe – with 2.5% of Irish people aged between 15 and 34-years-old affected.
“There is also all the other drugs associated with it,” he said.
“Remember, we are not getting pure cocaine in Ireland at all. We are getting cocaine that has been cut and cut and cut.
“It is that mixture between cocaine and other drugs – they are extremely dangerous and most of the time, people don’t know what they are taking.
“They think they are taking cocaine and end up taking a whole heap of other things, including the drugs like Fentanyl which is becoming scarily popular on Irish streets.”
Cocaine
He said it is important not to think of the issue as “sort of dirty drug use that is just happening on the weekend.”
“Take your average joe who is taking cocaine on the weekend,” he said.
“That then progresses and they need that hit every so often and that becomes more and more prevalent in their life.
“They start to make unwise lifestyle choices and it is not just the drug overdoses that we all hear about. It is the injuries; it is breakdown of families from overspending and violence and aggression; it is the workplace accidents because somebody is absolutely exhausted because they have come off cocaine use from the weekend or the night before.
“There are a whole heap of things we are not even scratching the surface of and we are certainly seeing it in the emergency departments and it is associated will all sorts of drug use.”
