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OVERDOSES CONTINUE TO rise. Fatal overdoses continue to be a major health concern in Ireland. The most recent national statistics, from 2020, reveal a rise in poisonings — highlighting the increasing use of cocaine, and the risks associated with combining different drugs.
2023 saw the emergence of Nitazenes, potent synthetic opioids, on the illicit drugs market in Ireland — with significant clusters of related overdoses in Dublin and Cork towards the end of the year. It is not yet known how many of these overdoses were fatal as toxicology reports are needed.
Behind the numbers of recorded fatal overdoses are people, people who are loved and missed. This is not always apparent in the reporting by traditional media or the discussion on social media platforms. It is with this in mind that I share the following…
Almost twenty years ago on an overcast Thursday morning in early March, I was asked by my colleague to enter a room with them in a residential project we ran in Dublin city for people experiencing homelessness.
The night before, a young woman returned to the project. They were in good humour having had an enjoyable evening. They were keen to say goodnight and go to the privacy of their own room. There was no reason to think that this night was any different from any other.
The sun rose and the project stirred into life with residents heading off about their respective business — off to a Community Employment scheme, a stabilisation programme, a counselling session or what have you. The young woman, who was a little late in the night before, hadn’t been seen that morning. The staff on duty went and knocked. There was no answer. The young woman hadn’t signed out of the building, or perhaps she had left and forgotten to sign out? No one had seen her leave. With still no answer from the room and no reason to believe the young woman had already left that morning, there was growing concern.
My colleague called me, we went to the room where they unlocked the door and we entered calling out the young woman’s name.
The scene before us was something I will never forget. It was hard to look. There on the bed was the young woman, her right arm was outstretched and a needle and syringe were protruding from her vein. She had been dead for some hours. The scene was like something you’d see in a movie, seeming unreal because you didn’t want it to be real. There was a small handbag in the room.
I had last met the young woman the Thursday or Friday before and she was heading out for the evening. She had been to Penneys and she was decked out in her new clothes with a new handbag to finish off her outfit. I remember the handbag vividly as it was the same small black and white handbag with a picture of a kitten on it that my then two-year-old daughter had. Seeing this happy young woman in her early twenties, excited about heading out for the evening, with the same handbag as my daughter had struck me then; and struck me again seeing it in her room where she lay dead a week later. Two very different occasions, one of happiness and one of loss.
I think of her from time to time. I think of what her life could have possibly been. I think of those who love and miss her.
In October 2023, the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use published its recommendations. The work of the Citizens’ Assembly and their 36 recommendations highlight, once more, that drug policy is complex and there is much to consider.
A full report from the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use will soon be published for all to read. It will be discussed in the Oireachtas by a Joint Committee of the Dáil and Seanad.
The Government will then consider the findings of the Joint Committee before deciding on drug policy measures for the years to come. These will be important deliberations and decisions.
Government must implement policies that will bring the number of fatal overdoses down and avoid the loss, hurt and heartache that each of these preventable deaths brings – like that of the young woman all those years ago.
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge all the dedicated people currently working day-in-and-day-out to prevent fatal overdoses in Ireland, including people who use drugs themselves. Without their efforts, the situation in Ireland would be far worse.
***
Tony Duffin is the CEO of Ana Liffey Drug Project, an Irish NGO. First established in 1982, Ana Liffey Drug Project offers services to people who use drugs in the Dublin and the Midwest Region of the country. The recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs can be found here.
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I sat at a table of middle englanders a number of years ago when one, describing some daft scenario, called it ‘a bit Irish.’ This stuff is embedded in their dna
@yelkcub: Did you embed your DNA in him ?
@Ken Hayden: trying to figure out whether you meant to say something else but ended up asking if they had sex or not
@yelkcub:
In fairness you’re more likely to hear an Irish person using that expression than anyone else.
@Dave O Keeffe: If I said , did you give him a gob full , I was still laying myself open to the ”double entendre” brigade . I was always onto a loser .
Dave O’Keefe , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quQmJz4ub0s
@yelkcub: “A bit Irish” – in fairness, I use that one myself a lot of the time. Although ironically I’d probably be a bit pissed if some middle Englanders used it in my company. We’re a funny, contradictory bunch, us humans.
@yelkcub: same can be said about use of the B- word. The number of times the British people, establishments, companies or sports teams are referred to as ‘Brits’ is similarly embedded in DNA here.
@Mark O’Reilly: We sure are, black lads call each other nig#ers all the time and nobody has a bother with it. Im all confused!!
Nagger?
@Beachmaster: Naggin
@Beachmaster: Did you mean Naggers ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaBNCBXwiN8
@Beachmaster: numbchuck…as it’s a woodpile..
@Ken Hayden: But the question was ‘people who annoy you’
and you said N****s.
Classic in anyone language.
@Old Gabby Johnson: Southpark has a clip for every occasion .
What an obscure phrase to use .
Just an old expression…
@Clever Jake: OK…was red indian racist; is fenian and westbrit?
@Fank Pulman: not the same thing at all, what she used was a derogatory name for a race. I.e a racist remark
@Fank Pulman: Fenian is as far from a derogatory word as you can get.
@Fank Pulman: Speaking as a ‘red indian’ myself: yeah, it’s pretty racist. Ignorance isn’t an excuse.
Should be sacked for being racist but probably won’t since threasa may in government with with dup known for discrimination homophobia and corruption which she believes is OK
@Richard Doherty: using a singular phrase or word does not make someone a racist.
@Richard Doherty: she wasn’t being racist. She has had the whip withdrawn. An investigation is under way.
@Damocles: At least she’ll be able to sit down properly now .
I wonder will the burning of Irish flags and statues of Mary while DUP MPs look on and applaud next week make the news? Can you imagine if a German Minster applauded the burning of the Tora and Israeli flag?
@Darren Mccarthy: Correct Darren, now that is a premeditated act designed to cause offense to hundreds of thousands of people.
There is advance notice of this thuggery so it should be outlawed. There won’t even be an apology as it’s ” part of their culture.”
@KerryBlueMike: Well if lightning a fire and walking down a road is all the culture you have to offer the world….im sorry but thats the culture a caveman could offer.
@KerryBlueMike:
Saw a post on facebook about the 12th
When Irishmen dress as Scotsmen,marching to commemorate a Dutchman..in order to be thought of as Englishmen..
Does language not have context any more?
@Damocles: Yes it does and this is the context of politics where the N word has negative, dismissive connotations.
@Damocles: the rule is never say the N word. Simple really.
@Old Gabby Johnson: Tell that to your buddy Enda!
@Old Gabby Johnson: except when you can.
@Old Gabby Johnson: true expect if you’re an American rapper. . .
Next it will be elephants complaining that people aren’t talking about them when they are in a room.
And none of her colleagues in the room (Tory MPs Bill Cash and John Redwood) even batted an eyelid.
@Conor Byrne: Wrong. Mr Cash added: “I’m not happy at all with that sort of expression. I think that’s all I can say”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/10/tory-mp-describes-leaving-eu-without-deal-real-nr-woodpile/
The N word good god can grown adults not just type or say the word. I’m not defending her use of of bad metaphor before some one has a melt down.
@John Mc Grath: How can you accurately report a story if the very word on which the story is based, is censored?
Seriously, was she not aware that The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn has been banned from the American school curriculum?
@Mark DeFriest: the N word is used about 200 times in the adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That book is known as “the great American novel” in the US. Says it all really.
@Peter Cavey:
Arguably ‘The’ Great American novel.
Nuggets?
Would it have been racist if a black person said it?
@Gran T: context.
@Noj Nikrub: only racist if your white
Big deal what a fuss over nothing more then an old saying.
@Francid Dooley: Yeah, an old saying from the 1800′s back where her and her ilk belong. It’s something an elective member of parliament should never say.
She may have regretted the use of the words but the facts that she used the words is indicative of a particular mindset.
@Tony Daly: she is guilty of using a phrase containing a word that’s no longer acceptable in political speech or as an insult. That doesn’t automatically make her a racist, just stupid enough and arrogant enough to lose her job. We shouldn’t loose sleep over it.
(K)nickers in the woodpile? Would be disconcerting to find somebody’s discarded underwear in your garden I guess.
OMG
The lack of reaction from other Tories is because they all float around the same mindset.
She meant to say negative. How strange that she’s. Conservative. Do they think any other way. Them and us attitude.
For goodness sake Daisy have a smile. Lighten up. The lady made a stupid comment that has caused offense once it was reported. She aimed the comment at no individual or group and did not set out to offend or belittle anyone. She has apologized unreservedly and has been shamed by her brain fart.
How long has it been since the word was deemed unacceptable for use in any capacity? It has no other meaning than as a racist term. That you defend her use of it says as much about you as it does her.
@DaisyChainsaw: Get over yourself. The woman made an unfortunate choice of phrases. I will defend people’s right to be wrong sometimes, but could never defend the holier than though type… you know… a bit like yourself.
@KerryBlueMike: the fact that the expression is in her vocabulary tells us a lot about her.
@Metempsychosis: What a nonsense comment.I know the word “murder”,but ill probably just chill at home tonight.
@Nick Drake: you’re not for real. You’re defending the indefensible. Never learn
@KerryBlueMike: a brain fart. Is that what you consider a racist remark is. Grow up boy
I will hear of no defence,
Attempt none if you’re sensible.
That word of evil sense,
Is wholly indefensible.
Go, ribald, get you hence
To your cabin with celerity.
This is the consequence
Of ill-advised asperity!
Alarming at how an elected politician over there could be so ignorant and insensitive, even a child would have better cop on than to use that word in any capacity.
You’d swear some of those tories have had zero interaction with the common folk in the past twenty years, what sort of morons vote for people like her?
@Political Zomby: that is the dumbest piece of mental gymnastics I’ve seen in a very long time
Just your average, ordinary Tory ***t.
@Ian Heaton: yeah you wouldn’t get a Labour politician posting offensive racist material online and you wouldn’t subsequently see the Labour authorities under Jeremy Corbyn trying to gloss over it.
What a complete and utter idiot. Firstly for being a total racist and secondly for releasing a statement apologizing for any offense that she ‘MAY’ have caused – she should have resigned immediately and the fact that she didn’t just underlines that she doesn’t understand that she said something that couldn’t be washed away with a trite apology!
“Ignorant and insensitive “what would you expect from a Tory?
It’s true there is a bunch of naggers in the woodpile
Didnt Mary O Rourke make a similar comment some yrs ago, “working like a b___k”, isnt it bad when I cant put the word black into certain sentences!!-, I myself have never seen one in a woodpile but im sure it happens, I believe the words of baba black sheep are considered racist now, did the sheep complain?? What about snow white and the 7 dwarfs??? I suppose we cud call them ” Snow coloured and the 7 little Johnsons”
Now the Johnsons wont be impressed , u cant win!!! Well hiho hiho etc.
have your say