‘Going online cuts danger of buying off the street’

DURING our investigation, a prescription drug dealer from Cameroon willingly gave me the name and address of one of his buyers from Kilkenny.

The woman, from Castlecomer, had just purchased a box of diazepam. We made contact with her and she agreed to discuss why she took to Facebook to illegally buy this prescription drug.

“Facebook just makes it easier,” she said. “You don’t have to put yourself in any danger by meeting some dodgy character on the street.

“I’ve been doing it for the past number of years and so have a lot of my friends. I’m a former heroin addict and I am trying to get clean from diazepam and tramadol completely, but it’s extremely difficult. I’ve knocked it on the head more than once, but I keep slipping up.”

Rachel (not her real name) said while the social network had accommodated her drug habit, it was also rife with scammers.

“I’ve lost over €1,000 when someone from Cameroon tricked me into buying pills on Facebook. There’s a lot of counterfeit and fake drugs being sold that don’t have any effect whatsoever. This is why you need to be extremely careful and smart about where you buy them from.

“I’m a member of several private Facebook groups that are nearly 100pc scam proof. You have to be invited to be a member, but there’s always the odd chancer that will rip you off.

“I don’t want to say who I get them off, but the ones you can trust generally come from the UK.”

Rachel, a mother and former healthcare worker, added that getting drugs sent to her door came with its risks.

“Most of the time there’s never any problems with getting pills sent straight to my house. But there have been a few times where I’ve had packages with my real name and address not delivered. I think they were stopped at customs and I fear it’s only a matter of time before the Gardaí show up at my house,” she said.

The young mother said Facebook was also used as a tool for many recovering drug addicts to support one another.

“There’s a page called Narcotics Anonymous Recovery Group that has helped thousands of people,” she said.