Crack cocaine in the Dublin region - Health Research Board

So, they would talk about the kind of violence in their outside life. But even when they arein here they are more aggressive. They do, everything they do, they do it aggressively. Youknow even when they are talking. Their speech is aggressive. You know their body languageis aggressive and they kind of you know, if I am sitting there and they are sitting here kindof you know getting closer to you and they are you know, you’re slipping your chair back alittle bit.Dublin 12, drug-treatment service (October 2007)Oh there is, the last one we dealt with, he’s living with his auntie and his uncle, and he’sbashed his uncle. So, he’s ended up homeless through it, so there are consequences forthem.Location anonymised, drug-treatment service (October 2007)Two users disclosed details of paranoia-fuelled violent episodes that occurred during acrack binge. Both claimed that they were not normally capable of such behaviour.I walked into the kitchen … and I took out a knife. Came out of the kitchen like a fuckinglunatic, and went over to yer man, with the knife. I said ‘you think I’m a fucking idiot doyou?’ And he was looking at me saying ‘P… what’s fucking wrong with you?’ I said ‘What’swrong with me? Yiz are trying to get me out of this fucking house to rob me, that’s what yizare fucking bullshit, do you think I’m fucking thick?’ And with that he said ‘Ah relax’. Thanksbe to God the dog didn’t start getting aggressive and barking or copping on. But I startedslicing yer man’s sofa, and he had this big table and it had all [deletion] design and carvedin it. I just started stabbing it into that. He had a lovely stereo and so on and I practicallyfucking wrecked his flat right?Location anonymised, former crack user (October 2007)When you’re on crack, it’s like you’re he-man or she-ra or something. It’s like you’ve got thispower. I used to walk down the road and think that, ‘Anybody comes near me and that’s it’do you know what I mean? I went so bad on the crack one night, I stabbed a girl, I went offmy head on it, just because she was looking at me. And I actually went back to my flat andgot a knife, and only for it went in her leg, I could have killed that girl. And all because I wasso out of my head on crack and all she did was, I walked by her garden and all she did waslook at me, that’s all she did. And she wasn’t being cheeky to me or anything, it was justme on crack, because I was cracked out of my head and I was paranoid to bits. You thinkeverybody is after you, everybody is looking at you, it’s just madness, it makes you do somehorrible things.Location anonymised, former crack user (October 2007)Crack cocaine in the Dublin region: an evidence base for a crack cocaine strategy71