All this week, The Pat Kenny Show has been investigating Ireland’s obsession with cocaine.
We’ve heard from users, former addicts and the doctors and medics working to support them.
Reporting for the show this morning, Newstalk’s Josh Crosbie spoke to taxi drivers, Gardaí and ambulance workers to hear what it's like on the front line of Ireland’s cocaine craze.
“I'm driving 30 years and it's at a pandemic level at nighttime.” Said one taxi driver.
“They are coming into a taxi driver’s car with an aggressive behaviour because of the cocaine and that's what taxi drivers have to deal with all the time.
“They’re saying, ‘You wouldn't mind if I done a line?’ and I’m saying, ‘Of course I mind, this is my livelihood.
“It beggars belief that they have the audacity to ask you would it be alright. It seems to be the norm now with all these young kids – it's crazy.”
Cocaine nation
Another driver said he was shocked when two couples began taking cocaine in his car on the way from Blackrock to Greystones.
“As soon as they got in my car, they were very quiet in the back and straight away within two minutes, they were sniffing cocaine,” he said.
“They don't even look at me, they don't even say anything, it's like it’s just a snack.
“I was in shock; I didn’t expect it. They were - don't take me wrong - they were looking very posh and well-dressed, so I was taken aback.
“Like I said, I did not even exist for them.”
As part of 'Cocaine Nation' on @PatKennyNT, reporter @JoshCrosbie3 speaks with a publican in Galway, who has introduced a 'Sneachta-free Zone' on his premises, as well as a paramedic who deals with call-outs to drug users. pic.twitter.com/0rEBf9nNvQ
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) February 9, 2024
Gardaí are working with police forces around the world in a bid to stem the tide of cocaine arriving into the country and just five months ago, we had the biggest cocaine seizure in Irish history.
The head of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) Séamus Boland told Josh how the seizures affecting supply.
“In relation to cocaine itself, I suppose, to give an indication of how trends change, if you go back as far as 2019, we would have seized just over 60kg of cocaine throughout the course of the year,” he said.
“So, in 2020 there was 209kg kilos, in 2021 it was just under 260kg and in 2022, it was in excess of 390kg.
“Then last year was a pretty exceptional year, just over 2.5 tonnes of cocaine was seized.”
He said there is no way of knowing how much cocaine is making it into the country – but Gardaí believe the wholesale price of cocaine for the large trafficking groups into Ireland has actually increased by about 25% in the last three to six months.
"Everyday factor"
Josh also spoke to paramedic Greg Lines, SIPTU president for the Ambulance sector, who told him that cocaine is now an “everyday factor” for people working in the health service.
“It is nearly an everyday situation,” he said. “In years gone by, it would have been something you would see as a weekend recreational drug.
“Now it's in a lot of settings. It's the drug of the youth as well as the old. Years ago, it was a mature group, a wealthy group, now it's accessible to all and that's the epidemic, probably pandemic that the world has experienced in relation to cocaine – because it's so readily available.”
You can listen back to Josh’s full report here:
