Tag Archives: drugs

powder

The gak factsheet.

A gaksheet, if you will.

Not to be sniffed at.

David Burns, of UCD Students Union, writes:

UCDSU will launch a drug harm reduction campaign, the “What’s in the Powder?” campaign, in collaboration with DITSU,TCDSU & the Ana Liffey Drug Project today in the Mansion House, Dublin this afternoon
The campaign aims to educate students on the common constituent parts of illicit substances, especially those sold in powder form, and follows the template of last year’s What’s in the Pill campaign.
Resources created include posters and a factsheet, which will be distributed on participant campuses as well as promoted on social media and via the drugs.ie website.

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RTÉ and the newspapers go into overdrive to give us all regular updates, including biographies, on the drug dealers operating in Dublin. Do we really need all this information? Does no editor think that rather than glamorising these people, there should be very limited information on their lifestyles, who they are related to and how they live above the law? Taxpayers are more interested in having the resources of the law directed at managing a fair and safe society.

Edel Hurley,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.

Reporting crime (Irish Times letters page)

Meanwhile…

Staying in tonight?

Via RTÉ

On the day that Dublin buries a second victim of the recent upsurge in gangland violence, we’ll [The Late Late Show on RTÉ 1]  get the lowdown from crime correspondent Paul Williams on who the key players are in this latest feud. We’ll find out what they’re worth, where they’re stashing the cash and how they are controlling the Dublin crime scene from their sunny bolt holes in southern Europe….

jectionsitelizevans

The In-Site Injection centre, Vancouver Canada; Founder Liz Evans

Free Wednesday?

Rebecca Bury writes`;

There has been a lot of talk recently by Minister for Drugs, Aodhan O’Riordan, about the introduction of a medically supervised injection site in Dublin sometime later this year.

With this in mind Vancouver-based Liz Evans, the founder of the first and only supervised injection site in North America, will be in Dublin to share the story of the successes and struggles of the centre with the hope of encouraging Ireland to set up its first site.

Over the past thirteen years more than two million injections have taken place in the centre without one death. The service prevents on average twenty-five fatal overdoses a month and refers more than 400 people into treatment every year.

‘Out of Harm’s Way’ at the Westin Hotel, Westmoreland Street, Dublin 2 on Wednesday  at 6.30pm

Out Of Harm’s Way event (Facebook)

Earlier: A Phoney War Without End

 

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Sonia O’Sullivan celebrates after winning a silver medal in the Sydney Olympics in 2000

 

“Was I cheated out of medals? Earlier in my career I tolerated a lot and just got on with training. Sometimes to such an extent that injury and illness were almost inevitable, and too often were. But I didn’t know any better. As an athlete I never wanted to let what others were up to bother or distract me. This wasn’t me being naive. It wasn’t something I could control. And I didn’t want to let it become an excuse.”

“… So I never said anything or questioned anyone because I felt this would only take energy away from me. And I knew I was doing the right thing. Some athletes were getting away with doing the wrong thing, over and over again, so that they believed that is what it took to be the best.”

“Only the athletes who never cheat truly know what they have achieved. There is no test for honesty, integrity, hard work.”

Sonia O’Sullivan

Sonia O’Sullivan: many countries have sub-standard drug-testing (Irish Times)

Pic: RTÉ

 

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Fun-loving ‘revellers’ in The Turk’s Head , Temple Bar, Dublin last night.

Tramps like us.

Baby we were born to gurn.

When we arrive, the basement is swarming with sweaty, glassy-eyed revellers asking for water. The party has spilled out onto the street, and people I recognise from school and college and Twitter have joined together to share the synthetic joy. Because it’s Dublin, everyone knows each other and is feeling particularly tactile; it’s hard to get up the stairs without being taken down by hugs.

The scaldy guys selling pills at the back of the club are even scaldier tonight, smiling through firmly clenched teeth, their eyes half open under bucket hats. They add to the illusion that we’ve all stumbled into some PLUR-filled, retrograde acid rave universe, a homage to a time we were too young to remember…..

We Went Out in Dublin While People Celebrated the Legal Ecstasy Loophole (Roisin Kiberd, Vice)

Pics: Sarah Meyler

joe_duffy

Rbb_400x400Joe Duffy (top) and Stuart Clark with a Rubberbandit (above)

In the wake of the accidental legalisation of certain types of drugs  Stuart Clark of Hot Press magazine went on Liveline on RTÉ One yesterday..

Mr Clark, a long-time campaigner against the closure of head shops, was asked to EXPLAIN himself by Joe Duffy, whose campaign helped force the last government to rush legislation ensuring the closure of head shops in 2010.

Grab a small tay.

Joe Duffy: “I don’t know whether you heard Paulo Brennan a former member of the Fianna Fail National Executive at the start and he was saying the Government should use this loophole today to actually allow the re-opening of head shops, what do you think of that?”

Clark: “Well, I totally agree. One of the things that happened when Mary Harney banned them was that they went straight onto the illegal market. We did a survey two years ago, a thousand recreational drug users, and that was the case. I also feel that if the loophole remained open we would not probably see an increase in the number of people taking illegal drugs, and I say that based on Colorado, where marijuana across the board has been legalised since January the 1st, all the research, it’s fairly intense research, shows no increase in the use overall of marijuana, and the most liberal drug laws, where decriminalisation has been introduced in Portugal, again it shows that people aren’t taking the drugs they didn’t used to take, what they are doing is feeling more confident about going to their doctors or seeking mental help if they do have a problem.”

Duffy: “But places like Holland have restricted the sale of cannabis.”

Clarke: “This has been very much contested. It’s based on very small samples.”

Duffy: “And we all know what happened in Colorado was about money. “

Clark: “Well, obviously, but…”

Duffy: “It’s about money. “

Clark: “It’s not just that, Joe. it doesn’t help anybody who takes marijuana to make them a criminal even if you think marijuana is damaging, is it going to help them having a criminal record, they they can’t leave the country and go to America or Australia where we’re exporting people, but also for the rest of their lives they’re stigmatised, that can’t help anybody with a so-called drug problem.”

Duffy: “I think, I think, Stuart I think a lot of people would agree with you on the decriminalisation issue, but the opening of head shops, I think, is where people draw the line.”

Clark: “What was interesting was and with the greatest respect government drug policy is not really based on facts and figures, it’s based on tabloids and shows like yourself, no research was done, they were saying it was creating a new market, now I would say from the research that we were part of people going to legal high shops have been buying illegal drugs and they went back to buying illegal drugs, what we’re doing though is taking away the huge amount of money by common criminals.”

Duffy: “And the 110 head shops were simply replaced by back lane drug dealers?”

Clark: “Well certainly we have hard and fast information that all of those substances went within a matter of weeks onto the illegal market, so we didn’t get rid of them, we just shoved them onto the illegal market.”

Duffy: “Okay, okay, thanks indeed, time is out, it’s three o’clock, Stuart, thanks indeed, that’s Stuart Clark of Hot Press.”

Listen here (at 1.11.42)

Yesterday: Lawful Coffeee, Uncontrolled Substances And YOU