THERE WAS no evidence of a structured link between paramilitaries and the drugs trade in the Republic, Det Supt Barry O'Brien from the Garda National Drugs Unit told the meeting here yesterday of the British Irish Interparliamentary Body.
The illegal drugs business, Det Supt O'Brien said, was becoming a very sophisticated organisation which now operated on a global scale. It worked on credit and the drug trafficking groups believed their product was as good as cash and were confident that their customers could pay. But in the end all drugs, like politics, was local and much detection was intelligence based.
The Minister of State for Drugs Strategy, Pat Carey, said at least one garda in each district was now profiling small dealers and this was beginning to show results. The gang warfare indicated that intelligence was catching up with the smaller dealers. Drug use in prison remained an appalling problem, Mr Carey told the conference. The only place where there was any significant progress on tackling the issue was in Cork Prison which was a small place where everyone knew everyone.
Answering questions from the parliamentarians, Mr Carey said that in the fight against drugs the national media had not done itself any favours by glamourising cocaine, at least until there were a few high-profile deaths. He accepted there was need for greater detox and rehabilitation facilities but if he was to wait for the HSE to roll out detox beds, then half the people in the country who needed them would be dead.
Another problem was setting up methadone clinics. There was a difficulty in having them accepted by the local community and mediation was needed.
He continued to be committed to the benefits of an overall substance strategy covering abuse of both drink and drugs.
Mr Carey said he favoured breaking the link between sport and drink advertising. Cheap and below-cost alcohol also had to be addressed, he said.
Earlier, Michael Mates MP said he had recently put it to the two unionist leaders, Peter Robinson and Sir Reg Empey, that the time had come for unionism to be expressed personally at the body rather than by proxy as it had been up to now. They had told him that the terms by which this could come about had to be acceptable to both of them, as they did not want a row between the unionist parties.
Mr Mates said that a formal approach would be made to the unionists inviting them to come to the organisation now that it was going to be relaunched as the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly. He said they accepted the relaunch as this took away the last ghosts of the Anglo Irish Agreement, which was the cause of the unionists boycotting the body from the start.