It’s easier to get delivery of cocaine than pizza in West
Ease of access to drug sparks campaign to make pubs ‘sneachta-free’ zones
PUBS in rural Ireland are designating themselves as ‘sneachta-free’ zones as cocaine use continues to spiral.
The scourge of the drug – sometimes referred to as ‘snow’ or ‘sneachta’ – across more remote parts of the country is continuing to grow and it can be ordered and obtained as quickly as a pizza delivered to your door, according to addiction counsellor and former Galway hurler, Justin Campbell.
Mr Campbell said that he once had a client that ordered his cocaine and pizza at the same time and had the drugs arrive at the door before the food.
The problem with the drug has grown so much that one publican in Galway has declared his pub to be a cocaine-free zone and said that anyone exhibiting any signs of use would be requested to take an in-pub test to see if they had any in their system.
Mr Campbell said availability of the drug was once clandestine but it has become so much more prominent in Irish society that it is a lot easier to get your hands on now.
‘The fact that you can go into any village or town and get it in 10 or 15 minutes.
‘I had a client who once told me if he ordered cocaine and ordered a pizza, the cocaine would arrive before the pizza. That’s worrying and that’s concerning – how freely available it is.
‘When you have a lot of young people who have access to the drug and it becomes trendy, then it sort of becomes acceptable and normalised,’ he told The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.
Mr Campbell said patients with cocaine addiction issues that come to him are most commonly men aged between 20 and 35.
Publican Joe Sheridan said he is fed up having people coming into his bar using cocaine and said that he does not want business from people using it.
‘I don’t want your patronage if you partake in cocaine or illicit drugs,’ he said.
The campaign against the use of the drug includes displaying a sign which reads ‘this is a sneachta-free zone, you may be required to test. We operate at zero-tolerance. If in doubt, stay out’.
Mr Sheridan has also posted on his pub’s social media pages about the campaign. The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau seized over €210million worth of drugs last year – mostly cocaine. Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland warned it is demand from middleclass professionals that is bankrolling crime gangs. ‘It’s no longer the case that people have to travel to particular areas to source their drugs, they now buy through social media apps, where somebody is on a night out and somebody can rock up to them on a scooter... with their purchase.’
Fed-up of people using the drug