MURDERED underworld figure P.J. Judge sent threats to local anti-drug activists up to the day before he was shot outside a pub in Finglas, a meeting of the anti-drugs group COCAD was told at the weekend.
It was claimed at the meeting that "black propaganda" supplied to the media continued to wrongly link anti-drug activists in Dublin with the IRA and INLA and with attacks such as that on a teenager in Cabra, who was covered in paint and had his ear severed.
The Coalition of Communities Against Drugs ratified a detailed policy document at the conference held on Saturday and said it would reserve the right to put forward candidates at the next general election.
Members promised to work with all agencies in the fight against drugs in their communities, but they criticised the Garda Commissioner's rejection of an invitation to attend the conference, or to send a representative, and claimed members continued to be targeted and harassed by gardai.
Mr Paul Quinn of Cabra Community Against Drugs criticised drugs groups and vigilante-style attacks. He said activists had been threatened by Mr Judge up to the day before he was murdered outside a Finglas pub.
Activists were coming under "increasing intimidation" from pushers in their areas and one woman had been threatened after reports of links between anti-naming a close associate of the dead man at a public meeting.
Mr Andre Lyder, of south inner-city COCAD, said a "sea-change" was needed in the Garda's attitude towards those fighting drugs in their communities. Co-operation between gardai and the communities was important, he said but the Garda Commissioner's response to COCAD's invitation made that "problematic and difficult".
Assets confiscated from drug barons should be used to fund drug treatment programmes, he added.
The conference also heard about the success of local drug treatment programmes and the need for better after-care support for addicts coming off drugs.
Mr Liam O'Brien, of the Community Addiction Response Programme in Killinarden, Tallaght, said there were an estimated 300 addicts injecting or smoking heroin in the area. Of the 45 or addicts on a local methadone programme, three had been free of illegal drugs for one year, 15 were clean for the past six months, while others had stayed clean for two months before relapsing.
Ten were working and paying, tax, 15 were working and drawing social welfare, while 15 were drawing social welfare only.
"The vast majority of them," were involved in crime, but all except two or three have stopped. We estimate it has saved the community and local traders about £50,000," Mr O'Brien said.
Mr Tony Mac Carthaigh, of the Rialto Community Drug Team, said up to 24 people were taking, part in a pilot drug-treatment programme in the Fatima Mansions' and Dolphin House flat complexes, but support services including psychiatric back-up were urgently needed.
Speaking of the stranglehold drugs had on the area, he said: "In Dolphin's Barn five or six years ago there was a bank. That has gone and in its place is an undertakers where many people who have died from drugs and AIDS-related illnesses have been laid out."