| Celtic Tiger on Smack |
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| The Republic of Ireland has the fastest growing economy in Europe. Dublin, with its cultural quarter, has finally taken its place among the capitals of the world. The Celtic Tiger wears a mask however. The exposure of Dublin's drug problem reveals the divided nature of the city. |
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| Heroin appeared on Dublin's streets twenty years ago. The reaction of the state at the time was motivated primarily by a desire to minimize its impact on 'respectable society'. A number of high profile drug busts saw some of the leading drug dealers taken out of operation. The problem was not gone however, it festered on in some of the most deprived communities on the island. In Dublin's inner city hundreds of young people have lost their lives as a consequence of the heroin trade. In areas already beset with serious social problems heroin dealing has had a particularly corrosive effect, becoming for many of the young of these areas the only means of climbing the economic ladder. While some drug users engage in drug dealing to feed their habit, the principle drug barons reside outside the city. |
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| Heroin pushers have profited from their deadly trade as young people faced with a future of unemployment have turned to drugs. Intravenous drug use and widespread needle sharing have resulted in HIV-infection and many have died of AIDS-related illnesses. |
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| The approach by government throughout the years has focused primarily on an attempt to contain the problem. Heroin-related deaths amongst the poor were not of serious electoral concern. |
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| Confronted by an uninterested government many communities have looked inward for solutions. From well-attended public meetings an anti-drugs movement was born, its objective: to focus on reducing the demand for drugs through education, to provide medical facilities for those already using drugs and to frustrate the attempts by drug dealers to ply their trade. Thousands marched on pusher's houses and on government buildings. |
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| In recent years the drugs problem has begun to seep out of the ghettoes. The deaths of a number of middle class children, the growth in drug-related property crime and finally the shooting of a journalist in July 1996 revealed the failure of containment. While a more enlightened drugs policy has been evident in recent years, it has proved less appealing than the politics of Law and Order. The Holy Trinity of more police with more powers and more prisons remains the dominant reaction of a society hopelessly addicted to the consumption of material goods and increasingly immune to the side effects. |
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| Johnny Connolly |
