A Dizzying Array of Substances.pdf - department of anthropology

InchicoreInchicore has changed physically and demographically over the past decade. The three InchicoreEDs (Kilmainham B and C, and Inchicore A) account for over half the population (7,909) in theCanal Communities area. This has risen dramatically by over 50%, in the past ten years. The 2006Census shows a significant foreign national presence with 16% born outside Ireland or England(Poland 5%, EU 25 3% and Rest of World 8%) (NIRSA 2008). Like the area as a whole, Inchicore isa mix of advantage and disadvantage, as defined on indicators such as early school leaving, loneparent households, and social class. The influx of foreign nationals may have influenced the level ofadvantage as described by these indicators.The observed demographic change, however, has not changed the profile of those presenting todrug services in the area. The local GP has observed fewer new patients presenting for methadonetreatment and very few from the so-called new communities (i.e., non-Irish immigrants), nor doeshe see much cocaine-related morbidity presenting for treatment. In other words, ‘drugs services’remains highly opiate-centric.Historically, when one imagined drug use in Inchicore, one thought largely of St Michael’s Estate. StMichael’s Estate, previously Keogh Square, was identified as the most ‘deprived’ spot in Inchicore.Thus, it was a target of several interventions, finally culminating in significant demolition a fewyears ago. Drugs, in particular, heroin, are usually cited locally as one of the main reasons thatresidents opted for the destruction of these flats. These changes, while widely welcomed, arestill not without their local critics. 10 According to some local community workers, the stripping ofcommunity leaders from St Michael’s Estate was facilitated by a social policy that granted a sum ofmoney enabling home ownership elsewhere. The 1990’s St Michael’s Estate, then, became a site ofnegative selection as vulnerable families replaced the families that could get out. Now, St Michaelsis a shadow of its former self. There is a strange haunted feel as one stands on the site wherefourteen blocks once stood. The empty blocks resemble a monument to an earlier time. One of ourconsultants, acting as a guide described how the block with only a few occupied flats would be usedas a site for using drugs while another block was where everyone bought and sold drugs.Even in the midst of often-harrowing stories, however, it was easy to hear a certain nostalgia forthe old St Michael’s Estate. As we visited old sites for using (disused house on the canal, thebutcher’s and disused slaughter house, and the graveyard), it became clear just how much building10 The regeneration of St Michael’s began with high hopes and ended in bitter disappointment. The worst excesses of property developmentin Celtic Tiger Ireland and a public/private partnership model conducted with little oversight left hundreds of families in residential limbobetween the destruction of one home and the building of another. Most of these families left the area (see Bissett 2008 for a detailed andcritical look at this process).32A DIZZYING ARRAY OF SUBSTANCES