Garda operation finds drug-free Greystones

November 1994

A recent undercover surveillance operation by the drugs task force failed to detect a single instance of illegal drug use in Greystones.

Superintendent Michael McCarthy told a meeting of Greystones Town Commission that the drug squad officers had concentrated their resources for an entire weekend on the locality, but hadn’t made a single seizure in that time.

The meeting heard that Greystones had been given special attention by the specialist drugs unit over the past number of months, but that the view of the officers was that drugs were not a particular problem in the town.

‘We are very conscious that because of the large number of young people coming in and out to functions in Greystones it could have become a problem, but the evidence to date is that there is not any grounds for concern about the level of drug activity in the town,’ said Superintendent McCarthy.

He said he would not wish to suggest they believed there was no drug activity in Greystones, and he pledged they would continue to keep a close check on the situation on an ongoing basis.

‘Drugs are always a matter of concern and from the garda point of view we are only too well aware that the emergence of a drug problem is usually the start of a crime problem,’ he said.

Responding to suggestions by Commission chairman Chris Maloney that the local authority should host a drugs awareness public meeting in the town, the superintendent said he would be only too happy to supply the personnel to participate in such a venture.