Cocaine ‘more prevalent than cannabis’, judge says amid string of Killarney cases

Cocaine, once rarely seen in the courts, was now the drug of choice, a judge has remarked after a plethora of cases of possession before him at Killarney District Court.

“Cocaine is more prevalent than cannabis,” Judge David Waters said at the regular bimonthly sitting on Tuesday.

Five men before him pleaded guilty to having possession of cocaine in Killarney town and a sixth was put back for hearing – twice as many as cases involving cannabis.

A number of other cases were adjourned for discovery and most of these too involved cocaine possession.

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Judge Waters said there was a time when the drug was not around, but “the whole country seems awash with it” now.

The solicitor representing the predominantly young men before the court, Padraig O’Connell, agreed and said it was “the party drug” in Killarney.

Drug driving was also increasing and cocaine was now also prominent in drug-driving detections, court presenter Sgt Stephen O’Brien, the solicitor Mr O’Connell and Judge Waters all agreed.

People did not realise the drug could remain in their systems, leading to them losing their licence to drive for a year, Judge Waters remarked.

The values of the cocaine in the cases of possession, for personal use, before Killarney District Court this week varied between €10 and €100 in value.

The men aged between 25 and 38 had addresses at Mallow, Co Cork; Middleton, Co Cork; Killarney; Tralee; and Co Mayo.

Four had no previous convictions and will be given the benefit of the probation act providing they present receipts for donations of €300 to court-nominated Cuan Mhuire and The Grove rehabilitation centres by May 2nd.

The other cocaine related cases which came before the court have been adjourned for discovery of documents, and or finalisation on a plea of guilty.

Afterwards, Mr O’Connell said cocaine was being used as the recreational drug predominantly among young male professional men, and they would not previously have come to attention.

Meanwhile, there has been a steady increase in drug-driving detections in Kerry. The garda statistics for the first three months of the year at the March Kerry Joint Policing Committee revealed 37 arrests for drink driving and 19 arrests for drug driving.

In December, the previous JPC was told that around one third of those detected intoxicated while driving were drug related.

Illegal drugs are now in “every, nook, cranny, parish and village” in Kerry the December meeting heard. Calls were made for a joint operation between schools and gardaí to tackle the problem.

In some cases “huge” drug debt was being shouldered by parents of young people in the county and there was also intimidation.

One-third of detections of driving before Christmas were cocaine and cannabis related, with two-thirds due to alcohol, that meeting was told.