Dawn Russell

We don't judge people for doing it and we offer them support.

But we need to be clear that these are unsafe substances.

And we've seen people who have fantastic jobs and maybe they have got a local sporting careers and they're in university.

And those things start to slowly slip away as their substance use increases.

Absolutely.

There's multiple reasons that the people who come to us for help cite as their kind of reason for using cocaine.

And you've hit the nail on the head with that one.

People don't want to gain weight.

Maybe they see alcohol as something that older people lean on more and it's not their generation.

But performance is a big piece.

You know, being able to stay up, stay out, have long sessions.

if you're going to a three-day festival, being able to be on all the time with people and feeling that they need that stimulant enhancement.

Unfortunately, it's a very body-conscious world at the moment and there's a lot of younger people who are falling into that trap where they're using stimulants and sometimes even diet aids that have speed cut into them to keep their weight down.

And they don't see it as...

drug use you know the way you might see somebody using heroin or crack cocaine as drug use they see them as safe substances yeah why do they see it in that way why is it viewed as being safe

I think there's an unfortunate belief that these substances, because they may be bought through social media or through messaging apps such as Telegram or through someone that they trust, you know, a friend or a partner or a sibling, that they're somehow coming from a better source or a higher quality source than the heroin and the crack on the streets.

But of course, that's not the case.

I mean, drug dealing is a business and it's the same dealers creating all of these substances.

And we saw on the news last night, the guards did a fantastic job of shutting down a cocaine factory in Kildare.

And that just goes to show, you know, these are illicit markets that are creating these substances.