‘Dikes’ drug being sold for £5 each

May 1989

A highly-addictive drug that is usually used in the treatment of terminally ill patients is freely available on the streets of Wexford.

Diconal tablets, which are known on the streets at ‘Dikes’ and which are strictly controlled under the Dangerous Drugs Act, are being sold for £5 each to Wexford drug users. The over-thecounter value is less than 20p a tablet.

The painkilling durug is prescribed very seldom, and then only to dying patients or people suffering from severe pain. It is an opium derivative and is highly prized among drug users searching for a high.

‘It is highly addictive,’ a Wexford doctor explained this week. ‘There are a lot of restrictions on it. It is only given in cases of terminal illness or severe bone pain.

‘But it is much sought out by drug users. They seem to a buzz out of it. And once they use it, the want more of it,’ he said.

In the past, Diconal could be prescribed by a general practitioner, but only one prescription could be issued and it had to be fully written out.

In recent months, further restrictions were placed on the drug, and it can now be legally used in hospitals only.

The painkiller has been readily available in Wexford since last month, when reports about its sale first started to emerge.

And there has been a ready market among drugs users willing to risk addiction in exchange for a temporary high.

The supply is believed to come from either Waterford or Dublin, where the use of pharmaceutical drugs is prevalent, and where burglaries at chemists shops are a common occurrence.

Wexford Gardaí have dispelled suspicions that recent raids on a town pharmacy and a doctor’s house were drug-related, however.