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IT HAS EMERGED that two men died of suspected drug overdoses within days of each other in the past week, just a few dozen metres away from each other in Dublin city centre.
The body of a 42-year-old man was found in a common area in an apartment complex on Foley Street, just off Amiens Street in Dublin 1.
It’s understood his body had lain undiscovered for several days before the alarm was raised.
A man aged 33 was also found dead in the toilets of nearby Connolly Station yesterday, with a syringe found nearby.
Investigations are under way in both cases, and while causes of death have not been confirmed, it’s believed both fatalities are as a result of overdoses.
Public injecting
Figures from the Health Research Board point to some 679 deaths from drugs either directly or indirectly for the latest year records are available, in 2013. That figure includes both overdoses and deaths by trauma.
In many such cases, however, the deaths take place in hostels, private homes or medical facilities. These cases are unusual in that they happened in public or easily accessible areas within days of each other.
“People who inject in the public domain look for somewhere discreet to go, to hide themselves – like down an alleyway or in a public toilet,” Tony Duffin of the city centre-based Ana Liffey Drug Project said.
Often people will choose to go and inject themselves on their own. This concealment and isolation increases the risk of a fatal overdose, because people aren’t found until it’s too late.
Heroin deaths
The latest drug death figures show that heroin deaths have increased in Ireland for the first time since 2009. There were 86 poisoning deaths from heroin in 2013, according to those figures from the HRB.
Additionally, there has been a surge in polydrug deaths in the past decade – overdoses involving more than one substance. 72% of deaths where heroin was involved also included some sort of other drug, in many cases benzodiazepines.
As TheJournal.ie reported last year, experts who work with habitual drug users are also concerned about an increase in the frequency of injections as a result of the wider availability of a former ‘head shop’ drug known as Snow Blow.
Duffin, who is campaigning for the introduction of a supervised injection facility in Dublin, said the next government needed to prioritise the legislative change that will allow for the the introduction of such centres.
“The evidence is clear that both people would be alive now had they used in a supervised injecting facility – as no one has ever died of an overdose in one of these centres.
In addition, they would have been more likely to access treatment through engagement with a supervised injecting facility.
Duffin said his organisation had noted an increase in overdoses in their client group in the last two weeks.
“We will continue to monitor the situation with our service users and colleagues in other services, and we will be increasing our overdose prevention work.”
Additional reporting Michelle Hennessy.
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Don’t do drugs
Mkay!
It’s very easy to knock a drug addict, the majority will do plenty to to deserve it. But does anyone ever aspire to be a drug addict?! I don’t think so! While most people know the possibilities of taking that drug for the first time, plenty of them aren’t in the right frame of mind for one reason or another and that impulse decision might just change their life. While I don’t fancy living in close proximity to them, I don’t wish them any harm and view it like any other addiction that needs help.
It’s very easy to knock a certain type of drug addict. Others, such as Gerry Ryan and Katy French are eulogised and have ” the great and the good” of Irish society including the president turn out to their funerals.
Watched a documentary with Russell brand about drugs last night, have to agree with him, the war on drugs is lost, there needs to be a different approach , think dublin needs to copy what Switzerland do with supervised medical centres for drug addicts with clean needles etc etc…
Not with tax payers money, you can start a fund me page.. off you go.
Why don’t all these legalise drugs do gooders invite junkies and supervise them in their own houses, istead of expecting tax payer funded nurses to do it.
You realize how much tax has been saved with the model in Switzerland and Portugal?…..
Saved on Garda overtime, saved on customs overtime and saved on free legal aid. Do you honestly think the vested interests will stand for that?
Ah the “invite them into your house” rubbish looks like the right wing reckon that works for everything. Then they’ll moan about homelessness.
It would save tax payer millions ya pair of dopes.
While I’d rather there be no drug addicts in Dublin, that’s never going to happen soon would prefer a centre for them to do it safely for both themselves and everyone else’s good. You’d be silly to think taxpayers money isn’t going towards gardai arresting them for abusing on the streets, clean up of the mess they leave behind and any hospital care needed for preventable overdoses, rehab and plenty more facilities. I would rather they be confined to a designated area without my child or anyone else stumbling across used needles in any given place.
You do realise that the injection centres are purely for taking drugs and junkies are entitled to leave and travel around the city afterwards, they also are immune from prosecution for carrying in city centre so gardai wouldn’t be able to move them on or remove them from the streets for being off their heads.
‘ You’d be silly to think taxpayers money isn’t going towards gardai arresting them for abusing on the streets’
Any proof of this?
As far as I can see drug addicts openly and freely use drugs on the streets, day in day out, and no one does a thing about it.
Look at the number of articles on the Journal alone highlighting the cavalier attitude on the streets of the capital.
I live in Waterford , where addicts are becoming more and more open in their use, I visited Dublin for a day recently, a city I know quite well having worked there for a few years , sat outside the Asian market in Drury Street to drink a coffee and in the time I was there five junkies tapped me up for money.
As far as I can see the Gardai completely ignore the problem.
How many of these addicts were just an ordinary Joe so they tried it once found it gave them a real kick, next thing you know they’re addicted, did these drug addicts plan to be a drug addicts?
Yes they often turn out to be the sc!um of the earth and its very hard to have any sympathy, I’ve no fix have you?
No real loss ..
Wow Gary. You obviously knew them, yeah??? They must have been rapists and murderers for you to say that. Or was it just the fact they were heroin addicts???
Bow how …who’s going to shoplift in my local spar now and mug the old ladies on the street
My sympathies to you, your comment says more about you than the people who died.
Moss, with the best will in the world, it’s difficult for us normal folk to identify with people who destroy their lives and those around them in this way. Be careful climbing down off that horse, it’s very high.
I find it hard to have any sympathy for people who leave their dirty needles in playgrounds or on buses and trams.
Neal, do yo think certain people are more prone to addiction?
Gary Power.. You utter bag of sh!t
Ahh here comes the hug a tug brigade…let’s here how there all victims…leaving dirty needles round the place ..
@ Gary & Neal, if any of your kids/grandkids or nieces/nephews ever have a drug problem when they grow up I’m sure you’ll look at things differently.
*thug* *hear* *they are* *dope*
You want to stop dirty needles on the street Gaz? Injection centres then yeah?
@john doe if any relatives of kine developed a drug problem, it would be there own and not mine as I wouldn’t have any dealings with them.. You don’t just end up being tricked into addiction it’s very much a choice to start on drugs. So if you start you should expect that family may make the choice to avoid you
I think that’s a great idea Charlie. Can’t see it happening any time soon though.
Your brother gary
Thanks John for translating.
@Mark Ryan, you’ll make one hell of a father with that attitude. Some ppl make mistakes in life, thankfully thousands of these ppl recover and get their life back together with the love and support of their family. I’d hate to be related to somebody like you.
Mark Ryan, would you also disown a relative if they were an alcoholic?
Gary, thanks for that. It makes the loss of my brother so much easier. And for the record he never robbed anyone. He was a kind person who actually gave me a loan for college just last year.
These are and we’re somebodies son or daughter, someone’s brother or sister. It’s easy to pass judgement not so easy to stop and think of how they got to that low . May this never cross your door. Solutions not prejudice is what we as a society need.
I’m confused as to how these two men could be or could have been sisters or daughters. Tell us more.
He was my brother. He was 32. Thank you for you nice words.
That should have been main news yday and though there’s so much going on its the first I’ve heard of that Connolly death. The attitude to drug users here sickens me as if if we had a Portuguese or even a Swiss model people cant and wouldnt harbour their same contempt for IV users – whats the difference? oh yeah, taking needles off the streets ,severely reducing new HIV cases and eliminating a tax, saving €. Ireland needs to pick up the pace
Here’s the logic:
Drugs killing large numbers of people every year — Let’s legalize drugs. (and make more available)
The utter stupidity of the liberal mindset never ceases to amaze me.
Bet you’ve no problem going for your few pints. Or heading to tesco to buy your cheap slab of alcohol.
I don’t believe anywhere in this thread anyone has mentioned legalising drugs but do you really think the war on drugs is working?. It’s failed everywhere in the world and loads of progressive forward thinking countries have made steps to educate people as well as being able to use taxes to improve other services.
Prohibition doesn’t work. Drugs and addiction will never be eradicated so it’s a matter of finding a new solution to an old problem.
So educated people that have looked at the official statistics and facts in countries such as Portugal which has decriminalised are wrong because your opinion is right?? Hard drug use has halved in Portugal -drug dealers dealing Heroin, Cocaine and other hard drugs are now either in jail or put out of business while the focus is on rehabilitation instead of punishment (jails have more drugs than the street)- the savings on police time and law enforcement have been put towards education, and extra resources to tackle crime Lords! Bit if you are too ignorant to look at the facts and prefer to simply have an opinion which incidentally would lead to more drug users, more needles in playgrounds and less resources for our children then fine- your choice- but your opinions are based solely on ignorance! I don’t want to see junkies on streets – I want to see solutions that work, the best way to achieve this is to look at where in the world has had the greatest success – this is called Logic -not Pro drugs!!
Heroin use has increased in Portugal since decriminalisation.
In the US states where marijuana has been legalised heroin use has increased rapidly and is fast becoming a middle class problem.
As in any aspect of life once something becomes culturally embedded, a process which is facilitated by legalisation/social acceptance it becomes virtually impossible then to eradicate that force from society.
Legalisation of drugs will result in an increase of drug use and dependency.
And remember:
The legitimacy or otherwise of a drug such as heroin has little bearing on is fatal abilities.
Absolutely Rouzert. Although many don’t view it as such the medical community have recognised addiction as a disease. Considering the negative consequences of an addiction and the cost both financial and social, it’s not a choice any rational person would choose. It’s a compulsion.And criminalising addicts actually makes it harder for them to turn their lives around due to having a criminal record.
While I would favour decriminalising, control and regulation of cannabis usage legalising heroin and cocaine would lead to even more deaths from misuse.
In a huge office with a view of Vienna, Yuri Fedotov says: “Legalization is the wrong approach.” Fedotov, a Russian, has hands the size of frying pans and, for almost three years now, has been the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Fedotov rattles off a few figures: Alcohol, a legal drug, kills about 2.3 million people worldwide each year. Tobacco kills 5.1 million. With illegal drugs, on the other hand, the numbers are much lower, with 200,000 people a year falling victim to heroin, cocaine or crack. For the UN, this number illustrates the success of prohibition.
Legalising cannibas actually has a knock on effect on other drugs by not putting cannibas users in contact with criminals in the first place. No opportunity for them to push harder drugs.
Yes Martin I’m not sure legalisation is the way to go but I do think criminalising addicts is not the best approach either. If the pain and suffering they cause their families and those around them, coupled with the threat to their life and the financial cost is not enough to deter them, the chance of a conviction won’t either. But where relationships and health can be healed after an addict makes it to recovery, a conviction is for life and seriously impacts their ability to become a productive member of society, which may in fact lessen their resolve to try to get well. We are essentially punishing ill people because of their compulsive disease.
If you want to copy another countries model of dealing with drug problems… I suggest Singapore, it’s far more effective than Portugal or Switzerland.
Singapore has one of the lowest prevalence of drug abuse worldwide, even though it has not been entirely eliminated. Over two decades, the number of drug abusers arrested each year has declined by two-thirds, from over 6,000 in the early 1990s to about 2,000 last year. Fewer than two in 10 abusers released from prison or drug rehabilitation centres relapse within two years. We do not have traffickers pushing drugs openly in the streets, nor do we need to run needle exchange centres.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/05/singapore-policy-drugs-bay
The lower class drug…imported to keep the lower class down and on their knees.Little sympathy,I grew up in what may be described as a ‘working class area’ I did drugs,lots of them…had a great time…in fact made my childhood.But that was me,never got addicted.Some people are weak and get addicted easily.I work in a bank now,I’m addicted to women…
Lee as you are not an addict, you will never understand the amount of will power it takes for an addict to abstain. It takes a hell of a lot less will power for you to abstain than it does for someone in the throws of addiction. Any who make it to recovery show enormous strength and will power. More than you may ever need to demonstrate. Will power is battling against the strength of the compulsion. Just because you can easily choose not to do drugs and an addict can’t easily make that choice does not mean they are weaker than you. You are not an addict so comparing them to yourself is not comparing like with like.
This isn’t news.
Rip The sooner they get these injection centers up the better for everyone..
Very hard to get a comment on here. Junkies rob people, drug addicts dont.
Good enough for them! Just need the rest of the junkies to follow suit and the city would be a better place all round!
@liam whelan I’ll let my mother know that Liam. Thank you for your thoughtful words on my brother. I can see you’ve been dealt with this situation before. Kind Regards.
I b
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