Crack cocaine in the Dublin region - Health Research Board

There’s that much around, like you have every second bleedin’ person selling it. You’retalking what maybe 14 or 15, I’ve seen some kids even less, I’d say only about 10, I’ve seenthem smoking it.Interviewer: And are they from the local area?YeahInterviewer: And how do they do they pay for it, how do they get it?They just have to go out and rob, do you know what I mean? They’re either selling it tosupport the habit or else they’re going out and robbing it but the majority of them is sellingit. That’s what I’d say to you. There’s that much around.north-inner city, former crack user (October 2007)6.4 Systemic crime: gangland violenceEleven participants, including both treatment staff and users, referred to risingincidences of violence in their localities involving violent assaults related to drug debt,gangland violence and fatal shootings. However, it is not clear whether such incidentsare related to crack cocaine or to other substances such as powder cocaine or heroin:Obviously there are dealers here but a lot of people come from outside. They come like nextto… the clinic here has just been closed off but every afternoon here there’s usually a deliveryand down in the [city-centre housing complex] is another place. So, the afternoons aren’t thebest of places to be going around here really you know. People are used to it you know theyjust know they are coming. They’ve threatened…the Guards have been quite active for otherreasons like there has been a lot of shootings and that here and the people would say that alot of that is related to crack cocaine as well; definitely the criminal activity has increased.north-inner city, drug-treatment service (October 2007)6.5 Common cause modelIrish research has consistently revealed that underlying social factors – such aseducational disadvantage, poverty and inequality – contribute both to problematic druguse and to criminal behaviour.With regard to the drugs-crime link, studies of drug users have found them typicallyto be single, aged between 14 and 30, male and urban based; many are still livingin the parental home and come from large and often broken families; they haveleft school before the legal minimum age of 16 and have experienced high levels ofunemployment, with their best-ever job being in the lowest socio-economic class; theyhave a high number of criminal convictions and high rates of recidivism, with a historyof family members being in prison; their profile is one of extreme social disadvantagecharacterised by being from areas with a high proportion of local authority housing and76 Crack cocaine in the Dublin region: an evidence base for a crack cocaine strategy