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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now a leading drug addiction charity has said more Irish people are turning to drugs to get them through social events. Drugs like cocaine and ketamine are being used to ease social anxiety and nervousness in group settings. As a result, those now presenting with addiction issues are coming from a range of different backgrounds and lifestyles.
Chief Executive of the Anna Liffey Drug Project, Dawn Russell, is with me now. Good morning to you, Dawn. Morning, Clare. It's great to be on.
Chapter 2: What is the main topic of drug use discussed in this episode?
Thank you. Thank you very much for joining us on this this morning. So what you're seeing now is that people are using stuff like cocaine and ketamine to help them get through social engagements.
Absolutely, Clare. Drug use in Ireland has diversified massively over the last couple of years. And at Anna Liffey, we're over 40 years old. We've always worked with people with entrenched addictions who come from, you know, poverty stricken backgrounds and trauma.
But we're now supporting people who don't come from those backgrounds and who came into their problem substance use through the social scene and the nightlife scene.
Okay, and why do you think it is that people feel that they need something like cocaine and ketamine to get them through a social situation? Is this replacing alcohol?
It's unfortunately not replacing alcohol. It's being used with alcohol as well, which is polysubstance use, which is high risk. But I think one of the things, and many of your listeners might feel this as well, there has been a kind of a social normalisation of drug use in a recreational way in Ireland over the last number of years, which we are concerned about in the Analiffi.
So there may be some parts of people who are in their late teens, early 20s or 30s who feel that cocaine use is normal. which is one aspect of why people are using it. But also we did, you know, go through a terrifying global pandemic and many of our clients came of age during that time and socialising in groups to them and being out and about and putting themselves forward is quite frightening.
So they're really using these substances, particularly cocaine, ketamine and alcohol as almost a crutch to make them more confident when they're engaging with people.
So they just became unused to being in a social group and needed something they felt to get them through.
It's a big part of it, and many of us, my generation, would have used alcohol in that way, so it's not a new phenomenon. But alcohol is regulated and access to it is relatively limited to establishments that have a licence to sell it. Whereas now with people who are socialising, it's street drugs that they're using and coming from all types of different nefarious dealers.
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Chapter 3: How are cocaine and ketamine used to cope with social anxiety?
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.
Yeah. And you mentioned sport there. And we have seen this, haven't we? Increasing use of cocaine in particular in sports. You'd know better than me. But there is a sort of a view out there. Well, I'm not going to be hung over on Sunday morning so I can still play the match or I can still train if I've used cocaine. And also there's no weight gain implication.
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...
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Chapter 4: What demographic changes are observed in drug addiction cases?
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.
So it's incorrect to think that it's any safer than any of the drugs you see that people who are sleeping rough are using.
And you're seeing far more of this type of drug now, cocaine and ketamine, as you would of heroin. Is that right?
Yes, and we know it to be a fact. I mean, last year, the Health Research Board released the treatment figures for last year. Over 15,000 people sought treatment for their drug use, and the most prevalent drug that they sought treatment for was powder cocaine.
But also our colleagues in the HSE run wastewater analysis, which is a national programme where they analyse the wastewater to see what drugs are in them. And we know from that that cocaine is prevalent across every community in Ireland, and it was the highest presenting drug in wastewater.
OK, and this news then that the committee has decided or suggested that all personal drug use in Ireland should be decriminalised, the Oireachtas Committee on Drugs in their final report.
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Chapter 5: Is the use of cocaine replacing alcohol in social settings?
How do you feel about that suggestion, Dawn?
It's an incredibly complex area, Clare. To oversimplify decriminalisation would be risky. Removal of Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act would make it legal to carry drugs for your personal use.
But what you would need to have, if that were to happen, and if that were to be the approach that Ireland would take, you would need to have incredibly robust treatment services in place to support those people who do fall into problem addiction. And one of the things that Anna Liffey are quite worried about, and our colleagues in the Department of Health are worried too,
is that the figures I gave you earlier from treatment, that's only the people we're reaching. There are millions of people in Ireland and there are people who aren't reaching out for help.
And sometimes people from the social backgrounds that we've discussed, you know, more middle class or holding down jobs, they might feel shame and stigma and they may not want to reach out to a drug treatment centre. So we would really need to overcome that to support people if we liberalise drug laws.
We're a long way off that.
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Chapter 6: What factors contribute to the normalization of drug use among youth?
I mean, that is the suggestion from the committee and they would like to see a citizens assembly, a repeat of that. Well, this was set up, the committee was set up to consider the findings of the citizens assembly. So now we've moved to this suggestion from that committee that there's decriminalisation for personal use.
But as you say, there should be a long road to travel before we get to that point. Just coming back to the availability of cocaine, I think most people are aware that there is cocaine in every town, village and hamlet in Ireland, isn't there?
Yes, yes. I'm from a very rural community in Tipperary. And in my experience of socialising, cocaine and gambling go hand in hand now. You know, any kind of Saturday evening, if you go to watch the sports in the pub, there's people of all ages, you know, my age and my 40s as well, engaging in that kind of substance use and gambling and high risk activities.
And one of the big risks that we see from the Anna Liffey's point of view for public health in Ireland is that kind of othering of drug users, that people will see that it happens to other people, but not to me, as you said earlier, Clare.
And it's not to stigmatise or shame people for trying substances or using them frequently, but it is to kind of reflect on the fact that that can become a risk for you.
And if it is your loved one who's doing it, you really do need to keep a close eye and engage with them because the difference between recreational, enjoyable use and having a serious health event or slipping into addiction is a knife edge.
Mm-hmm. And just to go back to alcohol, because I think there are people who would welcome the fact that alcohol consumption is reducing in Ireland and has been for a number of years, which is great. But then if we think that is it being replaced by substances like this, which arguably could lead to even more harmful outcomes, you know, is the right thing happening at all?
Absolutely. And our colleagues in the HSE, they roll out a safer nightlife programme, for example, and they work on site in festivals. I think you've had my colleague Nikki Kleene on before talking about their drug testing in festivals. And what we see is not every young person who goes to a festival is using drugs. So I don't want to create a fear around that.
But those that are at festivals and engaging in substances are engaging in much more harmful levels of ketamine and cocaine use and pill use such as E.
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Chapter 7: How does the pandemic influence substance use in social situations?
than we have ever seen before. And they're mixing those substances. And alcohol hasn't gone from the youth population either. They are still using it to a degree.
And what we really do need to let people know is that if you're mixing those substances, especially with alcohol, that actually creates a stronger, more potent substance in a person's body called coke ethanol, which can cause poisoning, unfortunately, and serious health problems. implications.
I mean we don't want to send out the message that you know alcohol certainly the over consumption of it isn't any way safe either and we know that there'll be people listening who've experienced huge problems in their own families or perhaps in their own lives as a result of alcohol but at least it is regulated.
Absolutely. And what I worry about with drug use is when I hear people talking about safe ways to use drugs. And, you know, I'm safe if I do it this way. You're not. You may be safer. And there's great harm reduction messaging out there about taking half or going slower or hydrating. But that doesn't mean you are safe.
At the end of the day, you're taking on a substance that has been made in some illicit factory somewhere or in somebody's house and cut with multiple impurities on the street. And that's going into your body. And I feel very sad for some of the young people we work with as well, because they have such commitment to fitness and they eat well.
And there's a lot of vegan diets and not taking alcohol, as you said, Claire, and exercising. But then there are these literal poisons being put into their body, which they can't know what is in them.
It's strange, isn't it? It's like cognitive dissonance, you know, not taking into account what you're doing and the potential impact of it while, you know, having the healthy lifestyle on the other hand, as you describe.
Yes, and there's a substance circulating at the moment, the HSE put out an alert about pink cocaine, which is literally pink powder. But the HSE have found through testing that there's actually no cocaine in that substance. Synthetic drugs are a large trend now that the HSE are monitoring. So these man-made drugs in labs that have no link back to any plant-based substances. elements.
And the pink cocaine that's circulating doesn't have cocaine at all in it. So you're dealing with high risk unknowns of new synthetic substances that even, you know, an ambulance crew who are attending you would struggle to treat very quickly because they're a complete unknown.
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