DRUG ABUSE:LABOUR COUNCILLOR and deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin Emer Costello said that the capital's north inner city still had a major problem with drugs.
“We are dealing constantly with people who have lost family members and who have suffered because they are drug addicts.”
She said that the consequences of drug addiction included amputation and HIV. “Many grandmothers coming to my clinics have lost their children and are now rearing their grandchildren.
“The stories you hear from the north inner city would bring tears from a stone.” Cllr Costello said that when Labour was last in government, Pat Rabbitte had set up the national drugs strategy, which had done tremendous work.
“What has happened now is that the Government has decided to abolish the national drugs strategy and bring it back into a Government department.” This was unsatisfactory, Cllr Costello said.
Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte said the decision to abolish the national drugs strategy team was an attack on the model of partnership which allowed the community real influence on measures to reduce the demand for drugs.
He added that if the State was not in such deep economic difficulty, failure of the policing and criminal justice system would be at the top of the political agenda.
“We have a killing every other weekend, we have communities ravaged by drug pushers, we have young addicts dying and more deadly drugs being imported to and through this jurisdiction than ever before.
“We have anti-social behaviour and alcohol abuse torturing so many communities. Knife crime . . . and feuding gang bosses are challenging the gardaí and the rule of law.”
Mr Rabbitte said that this was the legacy of zero tolerance and that people did not feel safe on the streets or in their homes.
