We won’t be counting any political chickens until we’ve sat down and talked to her, but the unveiling of Catherine Byrne as Ireland’s new Drugs Minister suggests that there will be a continuation of the progressive line taken by her predecessor, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who’s now vociferously fighting the good fight in the Seanad.
A Fine Gael TD for Dublin South-Central, Byrne had responsibility for the party’s National Drugs Strategy from 2007-2010 and last year backed Ó Ríordáin’s call for the introduction here of medically supervised injecting rooms.
With the government confirming recently that the first such centre will be opening in Dublin this year, it’ll be interesting to see how much further Byrne and her colleagues are prepared to go down the Support Don’t Punish route.
Adding considerably to the debate are the findings of the Global Drug Survey 2016, which was conducted here in association with Hot Press.
Carried out confidentially online, it lifts the lid on recreational drug use in Ireland and monitors the international trends that might impact here in the years to come.
To assist with further harm reduction initiatives, the GDS team are running a mini-survey, which should take you no longer than two minutes to complete.
One of the questions asked is, “Would you use on-site drug checking or pill/powder testing services if they were available in your country?” – which is very topical given, one, the huge increase in MDMA use documented below, and two, the fact that then Health Minister, Leo Varadker, raised the issue of pill-testing here, in the run-up to the General Election.
“We know from years of experience that education on its own does not work,” he proffered. “People need to be aware that when it comes to anything bought over the internet or street they don’t really know what they are taking.”
There are also questions about festival drug use, a subject that’s currently being addressed by Dublin’s Ana Liffey Drug Project, who are offering harm reduction services to event promoters.
Visit globaldrugsurvey.com/GDS2016 now.

Irish People Prefer The Real Thing To Synthetic Cannabis
Described by the Global Drug Survey researchers as “the most dangerous drug in the world”, synthetic cannabis has failed to gain a significant toehold in Ireland with only 2.1% of respondents here using it.
We shouldn’t be blasé, though, about a substance, which punches above its weight in terms of the damage it does.
While only registering a 3.2% usage rate in Scotland, synthetic cannabis has been described by their Health Ministry as “a scourge that’s ravaging entire communities.”
Sold under brand names like Spice, Black Mamba, Vertex and Clockwork Orange, it shares many of heroin’s addictive qualities and is 30 times more likely to result in people seeking emergency medical treatment than the herbal varieties it mimics.
Thankfully, us Irish remain far more enamoured of real cannabis, with a usage rate of 78.6% among recreational drug users, up almost 18% on last year. That supplies are abundant is evident from the fact that the average per gram cost of resin has decreased from €25 to €18.30.

Cocaine Pulls Out Of Its Recessionary Slump
Having declined as dramatically as the Celtic Tiger, GDS 2016 reveals that cocaine use here has almost doubled over the past year among the cohort surveyed from 24.8% to 43%.
With cocaine regarded as a barometer of how well an economy is performing, it’s perversely good news for the Government.

Ecstasy Stages Major Comeback
Anecdotal evidence suggested a massive resurgence in the popularity of ecstasy and so it’s proved to be with MDMA pill and powder use up 19.5% to 58.1%.
The potency of pills has escalated to 100-150mg, with some containing as much as 330mg of MDMA – meaning that it’s easier than ever before to overdose on them. The harm reduction message is, as usual, to start with half a pill and see how quickly and strongly it kicks in before contemplating taking more.
“After a three-year period of dissatisfaction in MDMA, due to poor quality and uncertain use, MDMA is confidently back thanks to new precursors and synesthetic pathways for production,” says GDS co-ordinator Dr. Adam Winstock. “The current dominance of MDMA crystals over pills represents smart remarketing and is yet another example of an old drug finding new life with a new preparation. It may also open the way for injecting, which of course would not be good.”

GHB Becomes Part Of The Drug Food Chain
Having not featured in any of the four previous Global Drug Surveys Hot Press has participated in, one of the drugs most closely associated with the gay chemsex scene, GHB, has made its Irish bow with a 1.4% usage rate.
The findings won’t come as a surprise to the HSE National Drug Treatment Centre who for the past ten months have been referring people to Beaumont Hospital for G detox.
“There’s only a tiny difference between a dose that gets you high and horny and one that causes you to black out,” said Dr. Winstock in Hot Press’ recent Chemsex report. “By tiny I mean 0.5ml too much, so under no circumstances swig from the bottle. One in six men using GHB report on occasion passing out, which means there’s also a risk of sexual assault. You’ve said ‘no unprotected sex’ and come to discover that somebody’s fucked you without using a condom. I have a patient who only found out what had happened to him at a party when a video was posted onto the darknet without his consent.”

The Copycat Drug With Links To HIV
Like cannabis, cocaine has spawned a branded synthetic copycat, Snow Blow, which mimics its quick, intense high and can be injected as well as snorted. Its key component is more often than not mephedrone, which has a 3.1% usage rate, and is thought by the Ana Liffey Drug Project to be linked to the recent surge in new Dublin HIV cases.

Irish Drug Users Play Chemical Roulette
Ireland is among the world’s most enthusiastic consumers of ‘mystery white powders’, many of them being the former legal highs that then Minister for Health, Mary Harney, banned in 2010.
19.5% of respondents said that they’ve snorted or ingested a powder without having a clear idea of what it is. That’s 11.9% up on 2016 and brings with it significant (negative) health implications.
That there’s only a 3.8% pick-up rate in Portugal, which has decriminalised small amounts of drugs for personal use, is another example of prohibition causing the harm it purports to prevent.

More & More People Are Buying Drugs Online
9.8% of Irish users are purchasing drugs on the open internet.
Of these, 90.9% have bought illegal pills and powders; 28.8% prescription medications and 31.8% NPS, AKA Novel Psychoactive Substances, which are the new wave of legal highs.
It’s proof that Irish customs are powerless to stop significant amounts of drugs arriving here courtesy of the postal and courier systems.
“People buy online because it’s convenient, for the range and quality of products and in some cases because it represents value for money,” says Dr. Winstock. “With street dealing remaining a key target for drug squads, doctors being increasingly wary of prescribing irresponsibly and the purity of many illicit drugs being compromised through adulteration, the appeal of obtaining drugs online is obvious.”
Whilst 9.8% is a significant figure, it’s way behind the 44.5% of French people and 28.9% of Italians who buy online – and suggests that what we’re seeing is the merest tip of the internet iceberg.

The Cost Of Getting High
Irish cannabis is still among the most expensive in the world with only Norwegians (€22.80) and Canadians (€31.60) having to pay more for it. Skunk, if you can find it, will set you back an average €23.10 per gram.
At around a tenner a gram, you’d think there’d be a market for cheaper synthetic cannabis in Ireland, but thankfully people seem to have cottoned on to the fact that it’s bad news.
The cost of cocaine has dropped slightly from €90 to €84.20 per gram, which is once again in direct parallel to its increased availability.
49.6% say they’ve been offered ‘premium’ cocaine at a higher price with the promise that it’s better quality than the standard product. Of the 58.7% who paid €100 or more for premium, 25.5% reckoned it to be “much better”.
Cost, as well as purity, varies wildly, with Colombians paying €20 per gram and the price in Australia converting to a whopping €400.
Back in vogue MDMA costs just over €9 a pill or €55.44 per gram if you’re going for the powdered variety, which is marginally cheaper than a year ago.