Dublin: Children Being Recruited Into Drugs Trade As Policing Of Market Fails: DELAYED REPORT ? :*UPDATED Link

Drug availability is "largely unaffected" by Garda and Customs’ operations and drug markets are more "integrated" than ever in communities, according to a landmark piece of research.
*The research, conducted during 2008 and 2010, was commissioned by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol and the Health Research Board, both attached to the Department of Health.
It is unfortunate that publication of the report was held up for years as it struggled to get the green light from a number of departments, including justice*.

 www.drugfreeworld.org   & www.drugs.ie & www.drugscope.org.uk

The official report said more young people — including children as young as nine — are being recruited into a trade increasingly marked by violence.
*www.irishexaminer.com/analysis/special-report-the-drugs-trade-in-ireland-293769.html
However, the research, conducted over three years, said Garda activity can “contain” the problem and does provide “respite” to intimidated communities and instils confidence among residents in the police.

The study, commissioned by the Government’s drug advisory body, said not all drugs and markets were the same. It said the focus should be on those markets causing most harm to communities, such as dealing of heroin and crack and where children are used.

Lead author Johnny Connolly said the growing debate internationally about decriminalisation was an “important debate” and suggested that the Garda adult cautioning system could be expanded to include drug possession cases.

The research, co-written by Anne Marie Donovan, is the first of its type in Ireland and examined drug markets in four areas in the country.

The researchers interviewed drug dealers and gardaí in national and local drug units and customs officers. The study accessed the Garda Pulse system and conducted the most detailed analysis yet of drug purity levels at the Forensic Science Laboratory.

The report, commissioned by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol (* www.nacd.ie ) and conducted by the Health Research Board, ( www.hrb.ie ) also involved surveys of local people in the four communities.
Around half of respondents, on average, said they avoided certain areas.

“Drug markets are more integrated in local communities,” said Mr Connolly. “The markets are younger, more violent — there are more varied types of drugs. With new novel psychoactive drugs, drug prices have fallen and drug use has been largely unaffected by law enforcement.”

He said that, despite “widespread concern” about drugs and the expenditure of significant resources on law enforcement, there was an “almost total absence” of analysis of the outcomes.

Mr Connolly, a criminologist at the HRB, said both gardaí and dealers believed that Garda operations had “no impact on availability” beyond a temporary reduction for a period of weeks. This is because of the sheer volume of other suppliers, the massive profits and the constant demand for drugs.

The 300-page report, ‘Illicit Drug Markets in Ireland’, said that, in two of the four areas, young people — teens and adolescents — were heavily involved as runners and street sellers.

Mr Connolly said the State needed to build up communities and address their concerns, including social, economic and environmental issues. “The community dimension is key,” said Mr Connolly.

“That’s where the problem hits first and hits hardest and where the most damage is done. We have to find ways of engaging communities most affected, done on their terms.”

*It is understood that publication of the research, conducted between 2008 and 2010, was held up by bureaucratic and policy delays ?.

(Editor's comment: Sounds like a lot of people in high places, had and still have a vested intrest in supressing this report. I can only ponder WHY?)
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