Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Garda Van Photocall Ireland

€42,000 worth of Mephedrone seized in Cork

Two men were arrested at the scene but released without charge.

GARDAÍ IN CORK seized a quantity of the drug Mephedrone with the estimated street value of €42,000.

As part of a planned operation targeting the sale and supply of controlled drugs in the Cork area gardaí from the Kanturk District Drugs Unit stopped a car at Rathcoole, Mallow at approximately 11.50am yesterday.

Arrests

Two men in their 50′s were arrested at the scene and were detained at Bandon Garda Station under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act 1996.

Both were released without charge late last night and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant drug which has similar effects to speed or ecstasy.

Gardaí state that investigations are ongoing.

Peru pair face sentences of six years and 8 months>

Spanish woman arrested at Dublin Airport over cocaine seizure>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
47 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 11:56 AM

    …once again a waste of resources, it has not stopped a single person doing drugs. Can we admit this is not working and try another strategy?

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Shane Walsh Pics
    Favourite Shane Walsh Pics
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:06 PM

    That is €42,000 that a bottom feeding drug dealer will not get his/her hands on and also €42,000 worth of drugs that junkies will not get to take, so id say that is a good result.

    77
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:08 PM

    How is it a waste of resources, 2 drug dealers got arrested. How do you know it didn’t stop one person doing drugs. The policy is working better than having no policy.

    56
    See 29 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:13 PM

    Steve – some adults were stopped from putting something into their own body and not harming anyone, this equates to success for you? Right on. And what’s with the ‘junkies’ mention? There are more people and junkies using prescription mess than anything else these days.

    45
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:20 PM

    The question about freedom of choice is a tough one, but society has a responsibility to protect itself from poisons. I think the real problem with drugs is how they are financed, through all different kinds of illegal activity.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:22 PM

    So your defence of the policy is it’s not the worst thing we could be doing then Steve? Surely we can aim a little higher than that, despite historical precedents. Ryan is right, people who want to take drugs will take drugs, they really aren’t very hard to come by. 42k of a drug being taken off the street will have zero impact on the supply of drugs as it is not a statistically significant amount. Taking two drug dealers off the street will have zero impact as yet again we will be forced to accept that the laws of supply and demand cannot be legislated away. Certainly the current policy is the easiest one, but perhaps with proper public debate focussing on the facts and evidence, and maybe applying a little more effort, we can come up with better ways to deal with a problem that has been growing for the 50 years of our current policies designed to reduce it.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:25 PM

    @Shane that drug dealer has far more than €42k at his disposal I assure you.
    As for your second point that is painfully nieve, all said junkie has to do is find another dealer and that’s not hard as does a recreational user.

    Were not going to get anywhere interdicting supply, we don’t come close to getting even 1/4 of what comes in, and even if we intercepted half which is pure fantasy all that would do is restrict supply with the same demand which would cos price spikes and a spate of robberies and violent crime from desperate addicts would ensue and the more desperate the addict is the more likley the encounter is going to end violently. So even if this stupid approch ‘worked’ it would make matters worse.

    Because @RightWingSteve when you are a drug addict you need your fix and if you can’t get it from dealer A you get it from dealer B , C, D, E, F…..
    Recreational users similarly can just go to someone else.

    It’s time for some common sense reforms, and while I don’t think fully legalizing them and having them on sale next to the solphadine would be a good soloution, I think we can at least start smaller:

    1. Decriminalize drug USE , let adults take their own risks and put whatever they want into their own bodies, run all the information campaigns you want, and continue to battle to keep them away from kids, but a grown adult want’s to use them it should be that grown adults risk to take.
    2 Decriminalize private production and consumption of marajuana, it’s less dangerious than alcohol and cigarets and nobody has ever died from it, so this one is a no brainer, it’s also something that works well in pill form for cancer pain control and other medical uses.
    3. Focus all the attention on opiate dealers, they are the ones who do the real damage, and the ones who sell to kids, this would be far better use of resources than slamming 20 year olds up against a wall and arresting them for having a joint in their pocket.

    Let’s start there, then decide where to go from that point on, theres no doubt what we are doing now is not working, and in the US the DEA won’t even admit that marajuna and heroin are not the same in terms of the danger they pose, that kind of intransegence and pig headed stubbornness is not somethingt that makes for good policy.

    Steve don’t be dense, drugs finance illegal activity because they are illegal, it would not be Tommo making a fortune out of them and funding other criminal enterprises if some state licensed company was to make them.
    The drug war started when Nixon got a report that said marajuana was not harmful at all and other drugs could be dealt with in other ways, he binned the report, then released a press release lying about the studys results, thats how this all began.
    When drugs were legal back in the 1900s we still had addiction etc but we did not have any of the other criminal problems associated with them that only came after.

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:26 PM

    Hi Steve – they are financed (as u know) by criminals feeding a demand in the market. Drug policy is just not working, it’s time for a rethink before we end up with a policy and structure like the US. If you have time and netflix, watch some of the docu: The house I live in. It’s very good.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:40 PM

    The US has gone bonkers, there are people in California under the 3 strikes laws serving 25 to life for 3 drug possession convictions its madness.

    Many police depts get funding from state and federal level in the form of block grants determined by how many drug arrests they make, so they are constantly slamming minority youth in bad neighbourhoods up against walls to find little hits of hash etc and that’s turning entire communities against the police cos they see them as a threat not a protector when their son can’t walk to the supermarket to pick up milk without getting slammed against a wall cos he’s wearing a hoodie.

    Don’t wanna see us go down that road..

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:54 PM

    @ Ryan, the US imprisons more of its own citizens than any society in history. While incarcerated prisoners must work or they will be put in solitary, lose privileges etc. For this work I think they get about 35c an hour. This sounds fair enough until you realise that it is not necessarily community service that they are doing, but are primarily concerned with the manufacture of consumer goods; on average c.35% of kitchen appliances in a US home’s kitchen will have been manufactured in prisons. This has allowed the US to compete with the sweat shops in Asia & Mexico, and is considered by some to be just a back door to maintaining slavery in the US. They need prisoners to keep these work camps functioning, and draconian anti-drug laws enable them to keep prison populations high, and predominantly black.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 1:13 PM

    I will check it out Scarr, I still think drugs are a personal choice and if the only problem was personal then fair enough, but it’s not, everybody else has to fund the choices some people make.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 1:15 PM

    Prisoners also make items for the military. Also, the economy whole towns are reliant on privately owned prisons which need to be kept full.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 1:58 PM

    You can oppose my changes all you want folks but I don’t see you coming up with any alternatives, we have to do something. Clinging to something thats an acknowledged failure by every former head of state and govt in the world from the Mexicans to the Americans to the Chinese, won’t get your kids any further away from drugs.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:01 PM

    We could also adopt the Singaporean way, the real zero tolerance solution.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:05 PM

    ‘zero tolerance’ policies always end in disaster, I’ve seen zero tolerance for drugs at school lead to kids being expelled for having an Advil in their pockets.

    zero tolerance is a brain dead solution to any problem, life is grey and things have to be treated with approaches and solution’s proportionate and appropriate to their circumstances.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:14 PM

    It brain dead because you say it’s brain dead, grand so. Have a look at the crime statistics for Singapore if you don’t believe me that it works.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:20 PM

    Do you contend that Singapore’s low crime statistics are a direct result of their zero tolerance approach Steve? If so, can you please support this position with research or peer reviews? One of the worst mistakes regularly made in public policy is assuming causation where correlation exists. Fact is, Singaporean society and culture are vastly different to ours, and these cultural differences likely play a major role in their lower crime statistics. Look to America where a zero tolerance approach is also adopted in relation to narcotics offences – would you like to see US crime statistics mirrored here?

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:27 PM

    Singaporean society is different than ours, wow didn’t know that, they had huge drug problems a lot of their neighbours still have huge drug problems. They unlike the rest of the world have instituted real zero tolerance policies, the punishment for small amounts are large and punishments for importation are permanent. Might be worthwhile trying something like that.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:31 PM

    Steve – are there any other moral crimes you would like to lock up ( or kill) people for?

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:33 PM

    Probably, but that would depend on how you define moral crimes

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:34 PM

    But they’re not unlike the rest of the world, a few other places have adopted zero tolerance approaches but have not enjoyed the same results as Singapore. It is too simplistic to simply say they did this, this happened, therefore if we copy them the same thing will happen. What we are doing doesn’t work, what you are proposing would not work either imho (remember Singapore is a tiny place so their borders are fairly easy to control; we are one of the easiest places in the Western world to import into). Simplistic approaches have got us to where we are now, can we not recognise that it is a complex problem that will likely require a myriad of complex measures to ever come close to coming to terms with?
    Also, have you been to Singapore? Drugs can be got, and got fairly easily. The laws of supply and demand cannot be circumvented by government policy. The only difference is drugs are a lot more expensive, i.e. government policy has only managed to shift the supply curve.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:39 PM

    Also, you appear to have an incredibly left wing approach to drug control for someone who identifies as right wing. The right wing approach is market rules, allow supply and demand & market forces dictate.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:42 PM

    Yep I worked there for 10 years and the best friend and best man at my wedding has just retired from the police there, so I think I can have an opinion. Sometimes complex problems have simple solutions,.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:45 PM

    Also you are confusing free market theory with genuine right wing policies, personal freedom is important but not up to everybody else to cover the costs involved.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:48 PM

    If that’s true then why have similar results not also been enjoyed in America which adopts similar, albeit not quite so harsh, zero tolerance approaches to narcotics? Simple answers generally only satisfy simple people.
    I didn’t mention personal freedom. Right wing economics is Chicago school. What you are proposing is similar to central planning a la communism.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 2:51 PM

    I would place criminalising an adults choice as to what they choose to freely imbibe without harming anyone else a moral crime.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 3:17 PM

    Politics is far more than economics Silent M. Monetarism and the Chicago Boys had their day but it that kind of economics is a little too hard for Irish tastes.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 3:18 PM

    Scarr, you say it yourself, “without harming anyone else”, total agreement.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 3:24 PM

    Thankfully that kind of economics is too harsh for Irish tastes, although I would say it is actually just too wrong for Irish tastes. The assumptions they make about markets are frankly bizarre at times, and they are rarely open to correction.
    Nonetheless, you have yet to support your position that the low crime rates in Singapore are as a direct result of their zero tolerance approach with any research. Can I therefore trust that this is simply an unresearched opinion of your own?

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 3:40 PM

    There is literally zero evidence to support my position, apart from the information I have from my two ex police friends. I’m sure if you google “why is singapore so safe” it might help you.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Right Wing Steve ©
    Favourite Right Wing Steve ©
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 3:44 PM

    “Simple answers generally only satisfy simple people.” Nice by the way, I won’t take it personally

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Silent Majority
    Favourite Silent Majority
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 4:04 PM

    Ha, I genuinely didn’t mean it as an insult to you, just trying to come up with a suitably irrelevant quote to get myself famous on a UVF mural! And I’m (I think) quite a bit younger than you, so have had more exposure to drugs I would imagine. I have had friends from a variety of backgrounds for a variety of reasons get caught up in the whole thing. What you quickly realise is that political sound bytes and simplistic criminal justice approaches achieve nothing. I would also add however that I have seen more friends find themselves in personal trouble as a result of alcohol than any illegal drugs. Just because a guard or judge says something is okay does not necessarily mean that your liver or brain will agree!

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:15 PM

    I would honestly much rather the guards have caught a burglar, rapist or white collar criminal than this.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
    Favourite Jazz O'Gorman
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:20 PM

    There must be a lot of ratting going on. With such an abundance of drugs out there, The Gardai could announce a substantial seizure on the hour every hour, until the middle of the next millennium.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Agusta
    Favourite Anthony Agusta
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 11:47 AM

    Who still takes this? ????????

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keith Dunne
    Favourite Keith Dunne
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:37 PM

    42,000 street value ! So really it was only 1000 worth I’d love to know what streets the guards buy there drugs on ! That they put a 42,000 street value on it

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ron
    Favourite ron
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:42 PM

    Em, they ‘buy’ drugs?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Scarr
    Favourite Scarr
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:44 PM

    I remember reading a Garda ecstasy haul which would have put the price of a tablet at €14. I’m aware you could buy them for €3-5 at the time.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ireland Uncensored
    Favourite Ireland Uncensored
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:25 PM

    Sad times, had a 2 gram a weekend habbit back in the day when it could be got on southwilliam street, great drug never should have been banned.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean Byrne
    Favourite Sean Byrne
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 6:57 PM

    42 grand for a megaphone? Could they not just shout a little louder and stop wasting taxpayers money??

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute a
    Favourite a
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 7:10 PM

    That drug is filth,

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Martin
    Favourite Martin
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:07 PM

    Dipshits do

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tony Slap
    Favourite Tony Slap
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 6:53 PM

    The stupidity of some of the kids posting here is truly appalling.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ian Moylan
    Favourite Ian Moylan
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 4:18 PM

    Serious question
    What does released without charged actually mean?
    These two were caught red handed but released without charge..
    Does it go to the dpp and they could/will get charged at a later date or is that it now they walk away with no charge now or in the future?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peterwetch Vendor
    Favourite Peterwetch Vendor
    Report
    Feb 3rd 2014, 7:20 AM

    Nembutal, Pain pills, Seconal, HGH & Other Meds ( Hydro, Oxy, Roxy, Dillie, Opana, Perk, Addy, Desoxy, Phen37.5)(760) 933-8419

    Hello greetings to you all,we are very reliable and confidential
    we do sell pain pills ,steroids,growth hormones,anxiety pills and weight loss pills as well.
    We ensure that all our clients are safe with what they purchase for .
    Discrete packaging and 100% safe delivery .below are some listed products of ours:

    Xanax 1mg
    Xanax 2mg
    Xanax R039 2mg
    Onax 2mg
    Percocet 10/325mg
    Valium 10mg
    Valium 20mg
    Valium 15mg
    Rivotril 2mg
    Dilaudid 4mg
    Dilaudid 8mg
    Viagra (pfizer) 100mg
    Ativan 1mg
    Ativan 2mg
    Cialis Brand 20mg
    Nembutal
    -Adderall,Ambien,norco
    -Percocet,Phrenilin,Percodan
    -Soma,Subutex
    -Cataflam,Celebrex
    -Flexeril,Fentora..
    -Demerol,Daypro,Dilaudid
    -Endocet
    -Lorcet,Lortab
    -Ibudone
    -Methadone,Morphine
    -Naprosyn,Norco
    -Oxycontin,Opana
    -Ritalin,Roxycodone
    -Ultram
    -Valium,Vicodin,Voltaren,Vicoprofen

    Testosterone Propionate 100mg 30euro/39usd
    Testosterone Cypionate 2oomg 30euro/39usd
    Testosterone Acetate 100mg 30euro/39usd
    Trenbolone Enanthate 200mg 30euro/39usd
    Masteron Popionate 100mg 30euro/39usd
    Masteron Enathate 200mg 30euro/39usd
    Primobolan 100mg 30euro/39usd
    Trinaplex 200mg 30eurO/39usd
    Sustanon 325mg 30euro/39usd
    Boldenon 200mg 30euro/39usd

    Email at :peterwetchvendor@gmail.com
    peterwetchvendor@gmail.com

    Thanks and waiting for your inbox.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gavin Sexton
    Favourite Gavin Sexton
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 6:43 PM

    “Some one” is 15 or 20 thousand out of pocket. Theyll just make the money back up the same way. Lose lose situation. Win win for them once people still buy. Which people will defo do

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Richard Sweeney
    Favourite Richard Sweeney
    Report
    Sep 25th 2013, 12:53 PM
    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds