Dublin is experiencing the first heroin shortage in more than two years. The price of a deal of heroin has doubled in some areas in the last two weeks. In Ballymun, where some of the cheapest heroin was being sold at discount prices, the cost has doubled. Dealers who were selling two bags for £25 or four for £50 last month are now charging £25 for a single bag, or deal. The standard price of £20 charged elsewhere in the city, including St Michael's Estate in Inchicore, has increased to £35 a bag. Five weeks ago gardai from the Garda National Drugs Unit seized more than 20 kilos of heroin in two cars travelling separately from Britain. Four people have been charged with drug-trafficking. In the same week a man carrying four kilos of heroin in a rucksack was arrested on Westmoreland Street in the city centre.
However, there was no immediate heroin shortage in the city following the seizures.
Presenting prizes at an anti-drugs competition last month, Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne said it was remarkable that the price of heroin remained stable. "When you have seizures and the price remains level it would cause you to wonder how much drugs there are out there," he said.
However, some addicts familiar with the heroin scene now believe "a drought" was being planned by a network of dealers after last month's seizures so prices could be pushed back up to the £40-a-bag level charged in the 1980s. At least three organised crime gangs are believed to be involved in shipping large amounts of heroin into the city, organising the trade from Amsterdam, London and Manchester. The rest of the heroin on the market is being shipped by smaller dealers who bring in kilo-loads from Britain.
In the last five years heroin has been selling for as little as £7 a bag. The low price meant a generation of new addicts began smoking heroin, often as a means of coming down after using ecstasy.
This latest drought is the first shortage since the Eastern Health Board tightened up the methadone-prescribing system to prevent the synthetic heroin substitute getting on to the black market. Addicts must be registered with GPs or treatment centres and an identity card is being used to ensure they cannot visit more than one doctor to get a prescription. The methadone protocol has succeeded in stemming the flow of the prescription drug on the black market, making it harder for addicts who cannot afford heroin to fall back on methadone. The sale of cocaine, which can be injected by heroin users, is expected to increase in deprived areas as a result of the heroin shortage. An orchestrated heroin shortage could be used by dealers to expand the market for cocaine among intravenous drug users.
More than 340 drug-users are on waiting lists for methadone treatment since the protocol was introduced, despite the provision of 700 extra treatment places in centres and through GPs.
The EHB has plans to set up another nine treatment centres, although there is resistance from communities, who say they have not been consulted about having a treatment centre in their areas.
