‘Cocaine is fuelling barbarity’

ONE of the country’s leading emergency unit specialists says cocaine is synonymous with grotesque violence and ‘the sort of violence you see in movies and TV series like Narcos’.

Dr Chris Luke, Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Public Health at University College Cork, is calling for drug screening of suspects in all violent crimes, particularly murders.

The consultant in emergency medicine, who spent most of the last 40 years working in ERs in Ireland and the UK, has first-hand experience of the peculiar blood lust fuelled by cocaine.

‘The bottom line is cocaine is almost synonymous with grotesque violence, the sort of violence you see in movies and TV series like Narcos,’ he stated.

He made his comments after gardaí told the Irish Daily Mail that they fear that the brutal murder of a 17-year-old Drogheda boy in a gangland dispute was inspired by Narcos, a drama based on the true story of bloody South American drug gangs.

Dr Luke said the drug can have horrific consequences when taken by sociopaths or psychopaths.

‘It’s most obvious and familiar effect is it gives people this intense euphoria, what they call the Master of the Universe Syndrome,’ he explained.

‘The problem is that in the wrong context with the wrong human being you end up with perhaps a sociopathic or psychopathic mindset with the Master of the Universe effect.

‘A certain number of people become grotesquely violent. I think that is what is fuelling the barbarity we’re seeing.’

The doctor added that while the three main drugs linked to violence are alcohol, cocaine and benzodiazepines, cocaine is the drug most linked to extreme levels of violence.