Crack cocaine in the Dublin region - Health Research Board

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Like, I was down on M… Street in May this year and I must have been asked three or fourtimes was I looking for crack, was I looking for rocks. Whereas before you had to knowwhere you were going, you had to know who to ask, but they were openly asking were youlooking for rocks.Former crack user, unspecified location (October 2007)Participants in this study also referred to the emerging availability of prepared crackcocaine outside the city centre:There’s not a lot of people who know how to wash drugs properly. So these fellas are bringingin good coke, washing it up, they have their business, just say in Ballymun or Santry. They’llget somebody down here, probably a little 19-, 20-year-old to start selling rock for them. He’llstart selling and everyone will start buying it. So that’s how they get their business broughtdown to the likes of here.north-east Dublin, former crack user (October 2007)So, there is about four people in the community that could be named as dealers for crackcocaine. But, as I said, it’s only the last few weeks.Dublin 12, drug-treatment service (October 2007)10.3 Supply reduction: the challengesInformation from Operation Plaza suggested that crack cocaine was rarely imported inthe form of crack. Dealers were importing powder cocaine and selling to crack users whowould prepare crack cocaine themselves. According to the GNDU, non-Irish nationaldealers have quite a sophisticated importation system (GNDU, personal communication,19 May 2006). As noted above, unlike Irish dealers who, it is reported, will attempt toimport 10 kilos of cocaine at a time, non-Irish national dealers may employ 10 differentcouriers to carry a kilo each. Findings from this study suggest that prepared crack cocaineis available from dealers based both in the city centre and the suburbs.At the street level, the use of mobile phones has also become an issue. In 1997, at thebeginning of Operation Clean Street, mobile phones were not used to the extent thatthey are now. Their use has contributed to a less visible form of drug dealing. There area limited number of places where people can go and buy drugs openly on the street. Inthis study, crack users reported a number of risk-management strategies employed bydealers; the majority of these strategies were underpinned by the use of mobile phones.In light of greater attention from the gardaí, dealers were reportedly using a variety ofstrategies to avoid garda detection. These included carrying small amounts of crack toexchanges with users; depositing the drug in a hidden area for users to collect (ratherthan making an exchange); sending prospective purchasers to different areas of the cityinstead of making the exchange in the established city-centre market; and refusing todeal to unknown clients.Crack cocaine in the Dublin region: an evidence base for a crack cocaine strategy103
He’d know me, I’d know him, you know? If I was ringing from a landline, you know I’d say –‘Look, I have money, are you available?’ ‘Yeah meet me up at...’ So, you’d walk up and meethim then. You’d give him the money and if you were on a mobile, more times than not he’dwalk out of his flat, come down and meet you at a certain spot and the crack would be thereon the ground. He’d after being out before you got up there and it’d be under a can, it’d bebeside a bin. That he wasn’t carrying it down the street in case he got arrested, he’d give youthe money – ‘there it’s under that, in the bin, it’s behind that can, it’s under that wheel’.Former crack user, unspecified location (October 2007)Then as I said if you’re talking about M… Street if you haven’t got it there and then probablymaking a rock because in one of the shops upstairs…out the back room, they make it. Youknow. And they’d say ring in 20 minutes and they would ring someone else and anothercoloured guy would go to that coloured guy and bring it down and cross over. And that manis shaking their hand; he is dropping the rock while you’re passing the money at the shopdoors. It’s mad the way it works. Like it’s being watched a lot by undercover police.So that’s why they meet you offsite now. So, I don’t know if they are still doing it up therebut I haven’t been up there in a long time because your man Rock One, everybody goes forhis stuff. But yeah it’s being watched a lot so everybody is wise to that. But if there is no onekind of around they do all go up and down, straddling around, secretly to anybody.north-inner city, current crack user (October 2007)10.4 Price and the demand for crackAs discussed above, relative to moderate or recreational users, the demand for drugsis often inelastic for problem drug users. Price increases, where they occur, do notnecessarily deter use but may simply lead problematic users to engage in greater levelsof crime in order to pay the higher prices. Moreover, it has been noted that drug priceshave generally fallen throughout Europe in recent years. In the US, research suggeststhat demand for crack was created by its relatively cheap price. Unlike powder cocaine,crack was sold in smaller and cheaper amounts, making it financially more accessibleto the urban poor (NIDA 2004; Reinarman et al. 1997).Nonetheless, this study found some evidence that the high price of crack does deteruse:No, I haven’t knocked it on the head. It’s just that I don’t do it every day now. But if I had themoney I would. Everybody thinks coke is dear but crack is more.Current user, north-inner city (October 2007)I knocked it on the head but I have the slip at the weekend. Like, if I had more money I woulddo it. But I was locked up loads of times in Mountjoy.Current user, north-east Dublin (September 2007)104 Crack cocaine in the Dublin region: an evidence base for a crack cocaine strategy
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HRB Research Series6Crack cocaine i
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This publication should be cited as
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HRB Research Series publicationsto
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ContentsList of tables and figures
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7 Social consequences of crack use
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List of tables and figuresTablesTab
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AbbreviationsADRUGNDUHRBISCCSGLDTFN
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Glossary of termsBenzos: The street
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Executive summaryBackground and stu
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phone and buyers are directed to sp
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Part 1IntroductionCrack cocaine in
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In the light of these concerns, it
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extensive reporting in the US about
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Ten interviews were conducted with
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also offers potential to trace supp
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Part 2Crack cocaine in the Dublin r
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2.2 Criminal justice data - cocaine
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Prevalence of crack use among homel
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Local survey dataA survey in 2006 o
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Respondent 1: I’d say it’s stil
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3 Dublin crack cocaine market3.0 Ov
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sold on the street for as little as
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Like, I was down on M… Street in
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3.4 Marketing crackFour interviewee
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While crack was generally bought al
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• Although a number of dealers, o
Page 54 and 55: 4.2 Crack use and genderAccording t
Page 56 and 57: From about 16 to 21 I would say - t
Page 58 and 59: Table 4.4Number of new cases who li
Page 60 and 61: 5.2 Crack and other drugsMany of th
Page 62 and 63: Whether treated cases reported crac
Page 64 and 65: cases of intravenous cocaine use, t
Page 66 and 67: Table 5.5Number (%) of new cases wh
Page 68 and 69: Part 3Consequences of crack useCrac
Page 70 and 71: etween heroin, cocaine and crime. T
Page 72 and 73: So, they would talk about the kind
Page 74 and 75: Crack and prostitutionNine services
Page 76 and 77: On the other hand, reports from two
Page 78 and 79: often with a prevalence of opiate d
Page 80 and 81: The data provided by the NDTRS in S
Page 82 and 83: But you know it would be about kind
Page 84 and 85: So, debt is another significant iss
Page 86 and 87: 7.6 Key findings• A significant p
Page 88 and 89: There are considerable long-term ps
Page 90: 8.3 Psychological consequences of c
Page 93 and 94: 9 Treating crack use9.0 OverviewIn
Page 95 and 96: Some services were in a position to
Page 97 and 98: Both opiate-dependent and non-opiat
Page 99 and 100: • more outreach work to identify
Page 101 and 102: 10 Policing crack markets10.0 Overv
Page 103: local communities. There is growing
Page 107 and 108: Table 10.1 Number of new cases who
Page 109 and 110: 108 Crack cocaine in the Dublin reg
Page 111 and 112: 11 Discussion and research implicat
Page 113 and 114: 11.2 Responding to crack markets an
Page 115 and 116: 11.3 Reducing the harm that crack c
Page 117 and 118: Shoplifting, burglary and robbery w
Page 119 and 120: Bourgois P (2003b) Crack and the po
Page 121 and 122: Furey M and Browne C (2004) Opiate
Page 123 and 124: Loughran H and McCann ME (2006) A c
Page 125 and 126: San Diego Police Department (1998)
Page 127 and 128: Appendix A:An evidence base for tre
Page 129 and 130: note that providing information on
Page 131 and 132: MedicationsA number of studies have
Page 133 and 134: interpersonal psychotherapy. Americ
Page 135 and 136: Jurisdiction Intervention/Descripti
Page 137 and 138: Jurisdiction Intervention/Descripti
Page 139 and 140: Appendix C:Recent HRB series public
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