Crystal meth a 'real worry' for Ireland, Citizens’ Assembly hears
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Crystal meth, or methamphetamine, is a drug Ireland should be very concerned about for the future, the first meeting of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use heard
Paul Griffiths, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), which is monitoring more than 600 substances, said that new and synthetic drugs have fundamentally changed the face of drug use, from the plant-based narcotics that dominated before ecstasy or MDMA became widely used in the 1980s.
New substances are being reported to the EMCDDA weekly, he said. And more varied use of substances is making drug use a more complex problem.
“Crack cocaine is now a major drug in Europe. Methamphetamine is going to be something we really have to worry about for the future. But also drugs like ketamine. Many of these things we wouldn’t have been discussing 10 years ago.”
Fake pharmaceutical medicines, often bought online, can contain potent and potentially deadly drugs like synthetic opioid Fentanyl, responsible for a public health crisis in the US, in what is labelled as a benzodiazepine or Xanax.
A profound evolution in the drug market has taken place in a hyper-connected world, with drugs being sold through social media and the dark web, transported via busy trade routes.
More drugs are also now being produced within the EU for an EU market, rather than solely relying on plant-based drugs being shipped or flown into the continent.
Synthetic drugs can be very potent and can more easily evade detection due to smaller quantities. While some 6,000 to 7,000 people die from drug overdoses in the EU annually, North Amerca suffers 10 times that number of drug deaths, he said.
And while Europe’s drug policies “are not perfect”, there is increasing consensus in Europe on drug policy and less polarised perspectives than in the past.
Ireland is the second-highest consumer of ecstasy in Europe per capita after Holland, while Ireland is the fourth highest consumer of cocaine in the continent.
The Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use held its inaugural meeting this weekend at The Grand Hotel in Malahide, where the 100 members heard from a wide range of national and international speakers on the various and complex issues surrounding drugs use and drugs policy.