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THERE IS A “tsunami” of crack cocaine addiction in the Tallaght and Whitechurch areas of Dublin, with women making up one-third of those seeking help for the drug, according to a new report.
The report by Tallaght’s Drugs and Alcohol Task Force has said that the number of people being treated for addiction issues by task force projects has doubled in the last ten years.
Despite this, the report’s authors say they believe they are only reaching 25% of the true need due to an increase in the need for addiction services.
The report says its services are being spread even thinner over the past decade due to an overall decrease in funding from €1.3 million in 2010 to €1.2 million today.
It is caling for calling for an additional €1 million in government funding to take on more frontline staff to address the crack issue, create more residential addiction, develop more direct interventions for vulnerable young people and to fund more gardai on the ground.
It says that an increase in garda patrols is required due to what it estimates as a 75% increase in drug related crime since 2018, including the intimidation of women by dealers.
Tallaght has the “joint lowest number of gardai per head of population in Dublin”, according to the report’s authors.
The report also details what it terms as the “onset of crack cocaine in the last three years” which has left its services “at breaking point”.
“Crack cocaine causes chaos and destruction in the life of the person trapped in addiction and hugely affects their children, their wider family and community. A growing number of women have become trapped in a life of addiction and intimidation and find it very difficult to escape the cycle of trauma and addiction without our help,” TDATF co-ordinator Grace Hill has said.
The report found that, in 2021, the number of people using TDATF services because of crack cocaine addiction was among the highest in the country and about about one third of those were women.
The report details that addiction to crack cocaine is complex and difficult to overcome, with many people using more than one drug at a time meaning additional support is required.
Our approach to drugs in the community hasn’t changed in nearly 60 years and it continues to be a dismal failure. If we want a different outcome we need to try a different approach but we have politicians who lack the will, the courage and the competence to address this problem in a way that might actually save lives. Our gardai, many of whom who drink a few pints and snort a few lines at the weekend, still think cannabis is a dangerous substance that we all need to be protected from. Drugs are more prevalent now then they were when I was at them 30 years ago and its just getting worse with harder and more dangerous drugs all the time. We need new politicians who can tackle this problem with health led approach based in science and research as opposed to this current model of “drugs are bad, let’s ban them al
Drastic headline to bash areas again. Living in tallaght 17 years and very little has changed, there will always be addicts not only here everywhere !
Headline makes out its only happening in these areas which is b.s
@Marie Louise: Tallaght is definitely one of the dirtiest areas I’ve been in South Dublin, god when the council workers have been off for a few days around Xmas rubbish EVERYWHERE
@Marie Louise: totally agree. Tallaght is a great place. Been living here 46 years and the people are very down to earth and I have made lots of life long friends.
@Alan Peters: depends where, tallaght is huge. You cant judge it all on same way.
@Marie Louise: I grew up there myself in the 80s and 90s and still have friends and family there. There’s a good sense of community for the most part but it’s just not true to say very little has changed over the last 2 decades. The crack is out of control in certain parts of Tallaght. The social problems that come with this drug are so much worse than what we witnessed with heroin. Trust me. Crack use in particular is much more heavily concentrated in working class and social housing areas. That’s not nice to hear but sadly just a fact.
Theres been a Cocaine epidemic here for years. When its socially acceptable to have a few lines line its having a pint that’s where the problem lies. People can blame who they want but its society as a whole that’s to blame. As for crack. Go up to the Barry shops in finglas every day and see who’s buyin it. People from all over dublin and every walk of life. Crack is only starting to take a grip. Wait till it hits middle classes hard then people will be up in arms
@Seosamh Ohuaine: exactly finglas is way worse than these areas
@Marie Louise: it’s really not. 6 of one/ half a dozen of the other. Again it depends on the particular area.There’s a huge concentration of crack dens in social housing estates in West Tallaght.I know this as I had a brother who was an addict(now dead unfortunately) who frequented them My poor mother also had their occupants smash up her house and car when my brother owed money for the drugs they gave him on tick.There was no heroin on tick in the 80s/ 90s these degenerates hand out crack like candy knowing they’ll be terrorising addict’s family when the bill racks up.I have friends living in Fettercairn and Jobstown who’d attest to how bad things have become there. This will never happen in Blackrock.The powers that be have little difficulty forgetting certain demographics.
Where there is misery, lack of opportunity, lack of societal value, no hope, there will be substance abuse.
Crack isn’t causing anything.
The bleak lives of the users is what causes drug addiction.
I’ve been in Tallaght for 46 years now. Believe me, it’s not only poor victims, but middle class people using for recreational purposes. The real victims however, as somebody above pointed out, are the poor unfortunates with such bleak lives that can only mentally escape through drugs or alcohol. Or those who just got in with the wrong crowd. I strongly feel if they legalised cannabis, the other drug use would begin to decrease.
@Anna Carr: Agreed Anna. The real problem for the government is that so many people would move away from the most toxic and dangerous drug of them all, alcohol. I know because I am one of those people and I’ve lost count of how many others I’ve encountered who saw through alcohol for the toxic, carcinogenic, addictive dirty depressant that it is and instead choose weed as a much more pleasant and safer alternative without any of the nasty side affects that can come with alcohol such as sexual assaults, violent assaults, trips to a&e, cancer, anxiety, depression etc etc. The list is endless but you get the point. It’s well past time for change on this issue.
@Declan Doherty: weed can cause psychosis if abused. It’s not all rosy.
@Declan Doherty: also if you’re inhaling weed you’re also dampening it’s health benefits, weed smoke can cause lung cancer putting anything other than fresh air into your lungs can cause cancer
@Alan Peters: have you ever been in such agonising pain that you just cry? Imagine that pain 24/7 with no end in sight. Cannabis can relieve this pain. It can also decrease blood pressure and heart attacks due to severe stress issues. It’s all very well to preach super health but there is a growing number of people who are not healthy and it’s not their fault. At that point, the safest thing to use is GOOD QUALITY cannabis. Pain killers wreck your liver as does alcohol. And unfortunately people in high severe pain are not able to go doing jumping Jacks etc.
@Alan Peters: The method of consumption is a choice. Some choices are healthier then others. The sugar in edibles is more harmful then the THC. Vaping is less harmful then smoking. Smoking joints with tobacco is even more harmful then just smoking. The healthiest ways to consume cannabis are far more readily available in the progressive and forward thinking countries that have legalised and regulated. The government here don’t care about people’s health and are incapable of seeing beyond their own ignorant, narrow minded and outdated bias on this topic.
Let’s hang the pushers the jail’s are full and establishment can’t get a handle on it
@Gerard Heery: There are less civilised parts of the world where they do hang people caught selling drugs and it hasn’t made the problem go away so what else would you propose ? Establishment don’t have a handle on this issue because they can’t see beyond their own failed strategy and lack the will and courage to try new approaches which have been shown to be effective elsewhere in the world. Drugs will always exist. That’s a given. Our spiralling drugs problem however is caused by our incompetent politicians and their lack of courage. Our deteriorating situation lies squarely on their failure to adapt and change at this point.
@Declan Doherty: worked in the Philippines
@Gerard Heery: Only it didn’t. If it was working why do the cops there continue to execute suspected drug dealers ? That aside, we live in a civilised democracy. If you want to support that sort of regime you’re probably living in the wrong part of the world. Enjoy your travels.
@Declan Doherty: drugging up people is not civilised to the point of destruction
@Declan Doherty: no drugs in Singapore..they hanng drug dealership.
We should be able to elect people, pay them, and get them to run the country for the benefit of the citizens. The no-go areas are increasing along with no-go public transport routes with crime lords controlling large areas of our cities.
Drug dealers should be used as cheap labour for the state. Put then to some use.
All I see each week is wasted resources on weed busts. Great job Gardai, serious impact on fighting hardcore drugs right there.
@Gerard Heery, some Asian countries have the death penalty for “pushers” but people still buy and sell drugs in those countries, for enjoyment, nobody tricks or forces you to take any illegal drug.
@Gerard Heery, did it, can u prove that? how did The Philippines improve their extreme poverty conditions for their people, far more important than their citizens taking illegal substances.
@Tomaldo: twas on the news that it did control the epidemic and the leader in their country was praised for taking a Stance
I’ll stick to the ould coke powder.
I resent this headline, and the fact that it was put out on the radio this afternoon.
I’ve lived in Whitechurch for nearly 20 years now, and I’ve come across j&nkies about three times.
Whitechurch has a ‘name’ because it’s a working class enclave surrounded by the up-themselves-brigade middle classes on all sides.
@Gerard Heery, twas on the news years ago that Ireland wasn’t bankrupt, meanwhile the IMF were on the way. Adolf Hitler was praised on his way up, was he a great leader.
The Journal has lost any sense of humour. No fun allowed anymore.
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