Ferris Goes To War on Drug Gangs

By Owen Gleeson

Rural Ireland is being engrossed by the swell of heroin that has never before been seen outside of Dublin. Local gardaí are predicting it will reach epidemic proportions as the world supply of the drug reaches record level, twinned with an almost total lack of treatment centres outside Dublin and a few major towns.

The cause of this influx of cheap heroin can be largely attributed to the failure to create a stable government in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the largest producer of heroin in the world. Under the Taliban, poppy production was restricted and this was rigorously enforced. This has changed dramatically since the US invasion of 2001.

EU candidate, Cllr Toireasa Ferris, speaking while attending the rally against criminal gangs in Limerick, called for concerted government action against drugs crime. Toireasa Ferris said: “Problems arising from drug use are not confined to Limerick. Drug use can now be found in all the major urban centres across Munster and in smaller communities.”

Heroin is the drug of economic recession, gardai say. It wiped out whole communities in inner city Dublin during the 80s accentuating the social problems associated with unemployment, poor housing and poverty. Toireassa Ferris reiterated this point forcefully “Cutting programmes aimed at preventing drug abuse may appear a soft option for Ministers, but these cuts could have dire long term consequences for a whole generation across Munster. The last heroin epidemic coincided with the economic recession of the 1980’s.”

Mrs Ferris pointed out the damage that drugs cause to communities and individuals. She also put special emphasis on the scale of the problem “While that epidemic was largely confined to inner city Dublin, drugs are now widely available in all large towns and many smaller ones across Munster. In particular heroin use has moved outside the Dublin area and can be obtained in many towns and cities from Waterford to Limerick. Two thousand five hundred people died from drug use in the eight years prior to 2005 - that is almost one person a day.”
In Mrs Ferris’s own county of Kerry, new crime figures published by the Central Statistics Office indicate a huge increase in the use of heroin and other hard drugs in Kerry. Crime statistics recorded by gardaí in Kerry show arrests for possession of drugs for sale or supply rose from 63 cases in 2006 to 86 the following year. The garda crime figures for 2006 and 2007 in Kerry show 636 arrests for possession of drugs intended for personal use. (Kerry Man February 11 2009)

Mrs Ferris’s father Martin Ferris TD for North Kerry was heavily involved in the outing of drug dealers in his campaign for government in the last election. A campaign that was ultimately successful. Although there were accusations of vigilantism levelled at Sein Féin, Mr. Ferris himself was not charged with any crime. It is likely that a tough stance by Toireassa Ferris regarding drugs will be welcomed in areas that have been blighted by heroin and drugs in recent years.