AN INCREASING NUMBER OF WOMEN are illegally selling drugs in Dublin city to pay off their debts.

The Guardian claims that unlicensed drugs such as painkillers and sleeping tables have been smuggled in from developing countries and are being sold by “novice female dealers”.

Drug experts say that the problem of heroin use is likely to spread in the recession as more people become dealers.

Earlier this week, new figures show the number of heroin users outside of Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare has more than trebled since 2002.

Dr Des Corrigan, chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, warned that the heroin problem was likely to escalate as “it is almost inevitable those already dependent will recruit others”.

Grandmother “Sandra” (not her real name) told the Guardian she didn’t ever expect she would be selling drugs, but needs the money to pay her debts:

Do you really think I want to be standing here every day selling these tablets to the addicts? I have never taken drugs in my life and I never thought I would ever be doing this.

She said she earns more by selling the pills than she can get on social welfare, and is still paying off her son’s funeral. She said he died from an overdose.

One buyer said that he finds it difficult to sleep, especially without heroin, and so buys sleeping tablets on the street. He said that within a single night he uses the full amount of medication his doctor prescribes for a week.

Tony Geoghegan, chief executive of the Merchant’s Quay Project, told the Guardian that his staff have seen a serious increase in the sale of drugs such as Zimovane sleeping tablets. He said he fears the tablets are causing as much harm as illegal drugs.

Two of the Zimovane or Zopiclone tablets can be bought for about €20 on the street. Both are painkillers and sleeping tablets which are used by addicts to ease pain, especially during heroin “droughts”.