The truth about drugs in Ireland

LUKE ‘MING’ FLANAGAN’S CANNABIS REGULATION BILL MAY HAVE BEEN VOTED DOWN LAST YEAR IN THE DÁIL, BUT OF THE PEOPLE STOPPED BY GARDAI AND FOUND TO BE IN POSSESSION OF A SMALL AMOUNT OF DOPE ONLY REPORTED THAT THEY HAD ENDED UP GOING TO COURT. THIS INFORMAL DECRIMINALISATION IS JUST ONE OF THE ALWAYS FASCINATING AND FREQUENTLY STARTLING FINDINGS OF THE GLOBAL DRUG SURVEY WHICH FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR INCLUDES IRELAND IN ITS FACT-FINDING BRIEF.

Hot Press has joined the likes of The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Australian, Stuff, Co.NZ, Zeit Online and La Liberacion in facilitating the 2014 GDS, which was carried out in a record 17 countries – including such major drugs market-places as the US, Germany, France and the UK.

There were 832 Irish respondents to the survey, which was conducted anonymously online. The most ambitious and wide-ranging survey of its kind ever undertaken in Ireland, the questionnaire took almost half an hour to complete. It delivers a powerful snapshot of the tastes, preferences and habits of – and the risks being taken by – recreational drug users in Ireland on an ongoing basis.

“Given people’s natural reluctance to talk about drug-taking and how in-depth the survey is, that’s a very decent sample number,” enthuses Dr. Adam Winstock, the London-based Consultant Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist who co-ordinates the GDS. In fact the Irish figures represent a higher level of response than in most other countries, including the UK (though the surveys in Germany and New Zealand notably were on different scale).

“In total, we received 78,820 responses from non-treatment seeking drug users all around the world,” Winstock adds. “These are the hidden masses in our society who don’t usually appear on radars because, outside of their drug use, they’re not committing crime, they’re not in jail, they’re not a drain on resources. They do however represent a spectrum of people that the medical profession, policy makers and law enforcement should be aware of.”

IRISH DRUG USERS BEING RIPPED OFF

As in many other areas, Irish people are being ripped off in terms of the prices they pay for cannabis. While getting the drug into the country is complicated by our status as an island nation, and we're not close to the main suppliers of cannabis resin in the way that, for example, Spain is to Marocco, the figures will still make irritating reading for Ireland's cannabis users.

“You’ve got stupidly expensive cannabis,” Dr. Winstock confirms. "If someone buys a single gram, it costs an average €25 in Ireland compared to £14.50 (€17.49) in the UK, €9.50 in Germany, just over €9 in Holland, €9 in Portugal and around a fiver in Spain, which is the cheapest in the world. The good news for cannabis-users, however, is that in the majority of cases the Gardaí are not cautioning or prosecuting people caught with small amounts of the drug. If you're polite and don't mouth off to them, chances are you won't end up in court.”

There are some other very striking statistics, which confirm that the old argument on which the prohibitionist worldview largely hangs – that to legalise drugs would open the floodgates to their use – is way off the mark.

The fact is that only 13% said they’d take more of what they currently use, were drugs to be legalised across the board in Ireland. On the flip side, a whopping 48% said that they would be more comfortable seeking health advice – a clear benefit which surpasses, by some distance, any potential negative impact.

Interestingly, this compares to a much lower 25% who’d be more likely to seek medical advice if there was a ‘parking ticket’ system of fining people caught with illegal drugs. Among those who haven’t taken drugs over the past 12 months, 50% said legalisation wouldn’t encourage them to start using again.

RECREATIONAL USERS WANT SAFETY & PURITY

One of the strongest arguments in favour of legalisation is that it would take the trade – or the vast bulk of it at least – out of the hands of criminal gangs. That proposition is given vital new impetus with the revelation that one in 25 respondents were exposed to violence when attempting to buy drugs (heroin excluded) in the last 12 months. The figures for heroin are probably far higher.

“The overwhelming finding of the survey,” Dr. Winstock reflects, “is that if you decriminalise or legalise, people who don’t use drugs won’t go flocking to them. Of those that do use drugs, a few might use a bit more and dabble in other substances they haven’t previously tried. But the biggest thing is that it’s going to reduce the stigma of talking to friends and families and seeking help.”

In relation to drugs policy, one of the most controversial decisions of recent years was the closing down here in 2010 of the so called head shops. Confirming that this may have been a grievous error on the part of the authorities, the survey makes it clear that, in every respect, what people are looking for is ‘better and safer’. Indeed, an impressive 41% of respondents said their illicit drug use would decrease if a new, safer, government-approved drug came onto the market here.

“Ireland’s taken a particular approach – ‘We’re just banning anything that looks like a drug and closing down the head shops’,” Dr. Winstock says. “The question is, ‘What’s been the impact of a very ruthless policy, on people using legal highs and research chemicals’? The answer is probably ‘not a lot’ – because they’re still getting their hands on things like mephedrone, 2CI and synthetic cannabis. Plus, while we haven’t got the figures from three or four years ago to do the comparison, I suspect the head shop ban has driven the price of things like ecstasy and cannabis up in Ireland.”

With only 10.5% “following the Silk Road” and buying designer drugs on the internet – the UK figure is more than double that – it would seem that instead of disappearing, the legal highs banned by Mary Harney have just been assimilated into the preexisting illegal drug trade. Good news certainly for the illegal importers and dealers, but not for the Revenue Commissioners, who are no longer collecting millions of euro in VAT from head shop owners.

A dominant theme of the survey is a concern about quality and a desire for purity. The survey also confirms that people are prepared to pay extra for both. As an example, 48% felt the quality of cocaine here had deteriorated over the past 12 months, with 62.5% of them opting to buy more expensive ‘premium’ coke – and 57.9% of those agreeing that the ‘improved coke’ was indeed much better.

Asked to rate drugs in terms of value for money, Irish recreational drug users placed MDMA on top, with users awarding it 7.5 out of 10. Ketamine scored 6.5, cannabis 5.2 and cocaine 2.5. This clearly suggests that the cocaine people are getting is badly adulterated – which, of course, adds further to the potential for damaging health effects.

In relation to cocaine, another extraordinary fact emerged. It is clearly a social drug, with users sharing it to an extent that is not true of any other illegal substance: only 27% of users purchased it themselves; the other 73% were cadging.

INGESTING MYSTERY WHITE POWDERS

The popularity of ketamine (10.4%) is one of the surprise findings. Even more worrying is the willingness to ingest ‘mystery white powders’ (9.2%), which people variously thought were cocaine, ketamine, ephedrine, research chemicals and legal highs. The health implications of not knowing what you’ve taken are obvious. The advice from Dr. Winstock is, “First dose should be at least a quarter of what you think a tiny dose is – or a maximum of a quarter of a pill. Wait for at least 90 minutes before re-dosing.”

Another area of significant concern is the use of prescription drugs, with 2.6% of respondents using codeine to get high, 1.6% doing the same with tramadol and 3.1% with benzodiazepines. However, it's safe to suggest that these figures might not be nearly as high as you’d get in a survey of abuse of prescription drugs among ‘women at home’. The picture of the Irish medical profession that emerges in this context is not especially encouraging. A total of 47% of prescription drug users said that they hadn't been warned of their addictive potential by their doctor and 78% said it was possible to get a repeat prescription within seven days, with few if any questions asked.

The 2014 GDS also examines what happens when people get older and, in effect, refine their drug use. Of the 77.8% of people who’ve smoked cannabis at some point during their life, only 59.4% do so now. With MDMA it’s 64.3% down to 45.2%; cocaine 48.6% down to 24.3%; magic mushrooms 41.4% down to 12.9%; LSD 33.2% down to 11.6%; amphetamines 29.6% down to 8.2%; poppers 29.4% down to 3.7%; synthetic cannabis 27% down to 2.9% ; ketamine 20.8% down to 10.4%; mephedrone 16.6% down to 3.2% and 2CB 16.4% down to 10.4%. In short, there's a peak of drug use during people’s 20s and it tends to tail off as they get older – so, you might argue, all of the huffing and puffing is largely irrelevant. People get sense anyway…

Coming shortly on hotpress.com, you’ll find the Minister of State for Primary Care, Alex White’s response to the issues raised by the Global Drug Survey plus further analysis of the results. The message to him is pretty clear, however.

– Legalising drugs doesn’t mean there’ll be a sudden massive increase in their use;

– With or without government say-so, the Gardaí are increasingly reluctant to prosecute cannabis users;

– Banning new designer drugs merely drives them onto the criminal market;

– And far more needs to be done in terms of harm reduction.

Which is, of course, what Hot Press has been advocating for years. Only now, there are the stats to support the argument. The bottom line is that it's time to get real about the recreational drugs – and to start the process of decriminalisation…