Irish people are among the biggest users of cocaine worldwide, according to a disconcerting new report from the United Nations.
The study, conducted globally by the UN, found that one in every 40 people in Ireland reported using the Class A drug in the previous year, putting Ireland joint fourth for cocaine use worldwide.
The study, conducted by the UN Office ON Drugs and Crime found that Ireland was only topped by three other nations when it came to rates of cocaine use, with only Spain, the Netherlands and Australia ranking higher. The report said that Ireland is level with the US when it comes to use of the drug, while Australia had the highest use of cocaine worldwide, with 4.2 per cent of people surveyed admitting to using the drug in the last 12 months.
Over 2.4 per cent of the Irish population surveyed said they had used cocaine in the space of a year in Ireland. Since its recent publication, the report has sparked concerns about growing demand for cocaine in Ireland, and the implications, with concerns raised regarding whether its increased use could ignite further violence among drug dealing and criminal groups.
The report, published on 16 March, found that global production of the drug had increased “drastically” over the past two years, following an initial slowdown brought about by Covid-19.
The ‘Global Report on Cocaine 2023’ details how coca cultivation jumped by 35 per cent from 2020 to 2021 – a record high and the largest annual increase since 2016.
The UN said that the rise is a result of both an expansion in coca bush cultivation, and improvements in the process of converting coca bush to cocaine hydrochloride.
The report details how the steep increase in supply has been met by a “similar swelling in demand” with multiple regions showing a steady rise in cocaine users in the past decade, with the cocaine market remaining quite concentrated in the Americas and parts of Europe.
While the report raised concerns about rising supply and demand of the drug, it detailed how interceptions of cocaine shipments by law enforcement worldwide have also risen sharply, with seizures of the drug reaching a record level of almost 2,000 tons in 2021.
Commenting, the UNODC said that the rise in use of the drug is alarming.
UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said: “The surge in the global cocaine supply should put all of us on high alert.
“The potential for the cocaine market to expand in Africa and Asia is a dangerous reality. I urge governments and others to closely examine the report’s findings to determine how this transnational threat can be met with transnational responses based on awareness raising, prevention, and international and regional cooperation.”
Worryingly, the document also referred to reports into violence and intimidation connected with the dealing of cocaine within communities, noting a potential new trend where children as young as ten are “participating in intimidation practices” such as damaging cars and throwing stones at houses.
In some areas including inner city Dublin, it is possible to get access to the drug without paying anything upfront. However, this then means that people can end up in large amounts of debts, making them victims of intimidation, and sometimes being coerced into intimidating others themselves for gangs supplying the drug.
So-called “service providers” have proliferated, according to the report. Commenting on this, Angela Me, chief of the UNODC Research and Analysis Branch said:
“With its latest knowledge and trends on the routes, modalities, and networks employed by criminal actors. It is my hope that the report will support evidence-based strategies which stay ahead of future developments in cocaine production, trafficking, and use.”
Ireland’s increased use of the drug is a problem which has been in the making for a while. HSE Irish drug treatment statistics from as far back as 2006 indicated that while heroin remained the primary drug of misuse among users who sought treatment, available national and regional treatment figures made it clear that cocaine was the secondary drug of misuse.
171 per cent surge in those entering treatment
For the past three decades, reports of an increased level of cocaine use in the Irish pub/dance and club scenes have been connected to greater availability of the drug, decreasing price and increased social acceptance of cocaine use.
The new report from the UN comes after a Health Research Board (HRB) report released in June 2022 warned that the number of young Irish people entering treatment for cocaine use soared by a staggering 171 per cent between 2011 and 2019. This was matched with an 83 per cent increase in hospitalisations related to cocaine between 2015 and 2019.
That report found that young people in Ireland ranked second highest in Europe for the use of cocaine and ecstacy, with over one-quarter of people aged 15 to 24 having used illegal drugs before, with one fifth having used them in the past year.
‘Epidemic levels’
Following that report, one taxi driver spoke to Newstalk about the fallout which has resulted from increasingly widespread use of the drug in Irish society, describing the situation as “mad”.
Michael Conor told the radio programme that he sees the ramifications of the drug “almost every night” – admitting: “It’s gone mad”.
“The amount of times you’re picking up young people – and not so young people even – and they pay you with a tenner that’s all rolled up.
“You open it out to put it in your pocket and there’s all white powder falling off it. You know, you’re trying to wash your hands then, trying not to have it in the car and so on,” he said.
“Chaps in the back now – and girls – are just talking, you know, ‘we’ll have to get a bag, have you got a bag, we’ll have to get Johnny or Micky to get a bag’ and it is just epidemic levels at the moment.”
Speaking last summer, he said cocaine usage had reached “epidemic levels,” adding that multiple passengers had gone as far as to ask him if they could take the drug in his taxi.
Former Limerick All-Star hurler Ciarán Carey has also been among those to speak up about the problem. Appearing on the same programme, Carey said the HRB figures only scratch the surface of the problem.
“Looking at the figures, the 171% increase, I would suggest the problem is far greater when you take into consideration the people who are still in active addiction and don’t realise it,” he said.
“They are probably manipulating themselves; telling themselves they’re not as bad as anybody else and they are probably deluded.
“So, I would that 171% figure is probably a lot higher in reality.”
The UN report detailed that the vast majority of Irish users snort the drug nasally, while just one percent inject it, and two per cent consume it through eating or drinking it.