Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this important topic. As much as 80 per cent of crime in Ireland is drug related. The hard drug problem, which until recently was confined to Dublin, has shown worrying signs of extending to other urban areas and is getting steadily worse. For example, the Garda Síochána's annual report for 1994 shows a dramatic increase in seizures of practically all categories of drugs. Seizures of heroin increased by 262 per cent in 1994 over the 1993 figure and seizures of ecstasy increased by a staggering 1,323 per cent over the 1993 figure. The internal Garda report to the Select Committee on Legislation and Security states that the figure for drug arrests and seizures for 1994 was about quadruple that in 1987. It also states that in one six week period last summer 12 young people died from drug abuse in Dublin's north inner city.
The Sunday Tribune of 17 February 1996 revealed that in recent weeks in Dublin there has been a number of seizures of the drug known as crack cocaine. That is a deeply sinister and dangerous development. In its internal report the Garda states that crack cocaine is not on the market in Ireland currently, and that there was only one recorded seizure of a minuscule amount from a personal user in early 1994. Sadly, that position appears to have changed. The quantities seized show that the problem is still embryonic. However, the head of the Garda national drugs unit was quoted in The Sunday Tribune as describing the development as “ominous”. A number of community leaders in Dublin's inner city were reported to be “deeply distressed”. They have good reason to be so.
There is no substance that induces such an instant violent reaction in the user as does crack cocaine, which is a mixture of cocaine and sodium bicarbonate, usually in the form of some apparently innocuous substance such as baking powder. I understand from Garda sources that it is being produced at a certain location in the north inner city by the use of microwave ovens. It can currently be purchased for £20 a deal, which is cheap. It has long been synonymous with instant mindless violence of a most extreme nature. It is much more likely to cause fatalities in young people as a result of strokes or heart attacks. There is an increased risk to users of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Its effect is instant and comparable to that obtained by intravenous injection.
The most sinister and worrying aspect of this drug is its effect on users. Psychologically it induces paranoia and tends to make the user psychotic, hence the violence. There have been reports of cases in the United States where people who were high on crack cocaine shot dead anybody with whom they came into contact, even children who happened to be on the same street. The irresistible impulse to use extreme mindless violence is a typical reaction to the drug. Last year the introduction of crack cocaine in certain local authority housing estates in Liverpool and Birmingham caused these estates to be turned into virtual no-go areas within a period of three months.
Is the Minister aware of this sinister development and what plans has she to deal with it? Has the Government proposals to tackle long waiting lists at detoxification clinics in Dublin? Has it proposals to speed up implementation of the methadone Protocol, which is being introduced at present on a piecemeal basis? Has it proposals for changes in policing policy to enable the Garda to effectively tackle the hard drug problem and particularly to deal with this recent sinsiter development?
