Una Mullally: Crack cocaine is ‘huge’ in Dublin. We are past the warning sign phase

“I’m not sure so much has changed this year. It’s the same as what we were seeing last year — people coming in dishevelled, a lot of desperation on the street, homelessness, people using crack cocaine chaotically, food poverty and energy poverty is a big issue,” Grace Hill, co-ordinator of Tallaght Drug & Alcohol Task Force (TDATF) in Dublin told me on Friday. I had given her a call, to see how she and her team were coping amid what has been described as a crack cocaine epidemic.

Around this time last year, crack cocaine use was garnering media attention. Hill cited an article Kitty Holland wrote in November of 2021 as a piece that highlighted the severity of the issue. Fintan O’Toole called it a “major public health crisis”. Crack cocaine dealing is highly visible in Dublin city centre. In Dublin’s suburbs, services are struggling with hiring and retaining staff and the lack of Garda presence on the ground. The latter is something Hill hears mentioned in almost every meeting she attends.

“The issues are growing,” said Hill. “Crack cocaine is huge, there’s an increase in intimidation in our area. It’s just a domino effect.”

But those working in services across addiction, and the ancillary services that respond to issues that emerge from addiction, including youth work, homelessness supports, and mental health supports, keep at it. Hill mentioned two pieces of additional funding — €80,000 and €60,000 — that made an impact, directed towards two different crack cocaine response projects: a women’s crack cocaine programme (women account for 30 per cent of those using crack engaging with services in the area) in Killinarden; and an assertive outreach project in Jobstown. A south Dublin county partnership street youth work pilot was primarily funded by the Department of Community Development. When it comes to the vast spending across health, this is a pittance.

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[ Report highlights ‘devastating epidemic’ of crack cocaine in west Tallaght ]

Hill spoke positively about the €3.5 million made available in the budget this year for existing services, but last week she learned of a snag. That money does not include funding that can be directed towards salaries and it’s this very pedestrian issue that needs to be addressed urgently. Services tackling addiction in Tallaght and elsewhere in Dublin and Ireland are not immune from the same staffing crisis we’re seeing across many sectors. There are empty posts to fill. Staff who are trained sometimes leave for other areas of the health and social care sectors where there are better salaries, creating a drain of experience. It’s hard to retain staff. Burnout is an issue.

Hill said a broader focus should also be on the level of drug use more generally because people aren’t using crack cocaine in isolation and alcohol and heroin can also be a factor. Hill identified another aspect of how things have changed in communities since before the pandemic, “It’s tension. It’s the sense of tension in the communities.” This feeling of tension has a collage of sources: the impact of the pandemic; visible drug dealing; violence; food and energy poverty; the housing crisis; and intimidation. Every community across the country can probably relate to this end-of-tether feeling that the pandemic, housing crisis and cost of living crisis have inflamed. Wherever the fault lines are in any community, that’s where the schisms will expand.

Budget 2023 allowed for just €10.5 million for the national drug strategy. This includes €7 million for new developments, €4 million of which will fund the expansion of community and residential addiction services and €3 million to improve access to healthcare for “socially excluded groups”. Meanwhile, €3.5 million was secured “for community and voluntary providers to maintain the existing level of drug and alcohol and inclusion health services”. Just €750,000 was provided in the budget “to mitigate the impact of drugs and alcohol on children, families, and communities”, a task that we can all agree probably costs a good deal more than three-quarters of a million.

The previous year, in Budget 2022, €700,000 was allocated to provide additional services for children and families affected by parental drug and alcohol use. Considering that in 2019 there were 2,400 cases of dependent children where an individual received drug treatment, that’s about €290 per child if you wanted to do some crude division. Also that year, €500,000 was allocated to address high-risk drug use, such as crack cocaine. In that same budget, the Government gave €17.6 million to greyhound racing and upped that to €18.2 million this year.

In such a difficult context, one characteristic of conversations with those working in addiction is resilient positivity. Despite the challenges of the work Hill said: “I feel optimistic about 2023. I think we did a lot this year and I hope to do more. There’s no doubt about it, sometimes when you look at it with a critical eye, you think, ‘are we getting anywhere at all?’ But there’s lots of good stuff happening.”

But hard-working people can’t run on optimism alone. Tackling addiction is a life-and-death issue. The growth of crack cocaine in Dublin is extremely worrying. Crack cocaine dealing and smoking are highly visible on streets in Dublin city centre. It’s important not to spiral into some kind of moral panic about the issue and instead address it as the public health issue it is. It is complex and loads of interlocking services are required. But we’ve also gone past the warning sign phase. We know the problem exists, we know the solutions, we know those who are working to address it and they need to be supported and resourced as a priority.