1. Drug Trends & Responses
Tim Bingham
University College Cork 27th April

2. What are the current
challenges
• What are the current drug trends and
challenges facing communities and Irish Society
today
• What do you think the responses should be

3. Current challenges
Drug problems more widespread, more embedded and more
complex
Drug and alcohol use, particularly long term use causes
damage to mental and physical health and there is a strong
association between drug use, suicide and accidental deaths
and more people now die from drug related deaths than on
the roads every year.
The most recent figures indicate that more than two and a
half times as many people died from drugs & alcohol (638)
than from road deaths (238)

4. Poisoning Deaths

5. • Heroin implicated in 70 of the 2010 deaths (N=323) compared
to 115 in 2009 (heroin drought in UK and Ireland)
• 52% of deaths are due to 1 substance, 48% are polydrug
related (increasingly more common since 2004)
• Alcohol involved in 46% of deaths
• Alcohol solely implicated in 24% of deaths

6. • Cocaine implicated in 20 deaths compared to 66 in 2007
(matches wider European trend)
• Methadone continues to be implicated in fewer deaths; 80 in
2008, 69 in 2009 and 56 in 2010
• Benzos were the 2nd most common drug group implicated in
deaths 34% (after alcohol)

7. Image and Performance
Enhancing Drugs (IPEDs)
• In sub groups consider the following:
• What are the main motivations for the use of IPEDs?
• Can we define them in groups?
• How do they compare with people who use street Drugs?

9. Addiction/dependency
• 3 or more DSM-IV criteria need to be met for a diagnosis of
dependency
Use higher doses for a longer periods of time than initially planned
Desire to cut down on drug use but unable to do this
Continue to use steroids in spite of negative health consequences
Increased doses required for desired effect
Discontinuation associated with withdrawal symptoms

10. Comparison with Street Drugs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Similarities
Stigma
Method of administration
Poly drug use
How bought
Dependency
Differences
Self perception
How bought
Legality
Self welfare
Social status?
Ratio of men to women
No instant gratification

11. Drug Markets
• Drug Markets are
Transient in nature
Visible, open air drug markets tend to be more harmful per
unit of use than hidden, closed drug markets (Alex Stevens
2013)
Susceptible to the economic changes

12. • Generally, prohibition of drugs increases their price, which can
encourage users to inject (rather than smoke or snort) in order to
maximise their intake from a limited supply. The transition to
injection is itself associated with major health risks internationally
• Netherlands – which has reduced the punitiveness of its response to
PWUDs has seen a reduction in the rate of injecting drug use.
• Some studies have found that local policing tactics can contribute to
increased health risks for PWUDs. E.g, the criminalisation of drug
possession encourages people who inject drugs (PWIDs) to inject
hurriedly in unsafe environments and increasing risks of transmitting
bloodborne viruses

13. Drug sellers
• “the drug economy goes up and down. This time of year is the
worst for selling drugs with school starting and people saving
for Xmas. Sometime I make a couple of grand a week
sometimes two hundred when I have to pay a ‘bill’. Or I want
new car then u use all your profit rather than by outright”
• Economics
Credit or cash
 usually paid for their product in advance .
 usually got the drugs for resale on credit.
Again there was a recessionary effect as respondents said
they could only by smaller amounts with cash now and some
had moved completely from cash purchase to credit
O’Reilly & Ruane (2011)

14. Reasons individuals became
involved
To be able to afford their personal recreational drug use
A minority gave ‘money’ as the main reason to become
involved
“I wanted me own money, me ma and da never had any. I
wanted hash and money and loads of airmax ha!”
 having family and friends already involved
 described job satisfaction:
‘I enjoyed it, I hated school it was hard in school this way easy
and I was good at it. I was always a bit wild and a fighter so
that helped

15. No way out
its my job, too much depends on it. I have accumulated high
amounts of debt it is like a revolving door. Your owed money
and you owe money”
There was also the sense that this was their identity not
something that could be slipped out of

16. • Luksetich and White (1983) suggest, based on early
ethnographic work, that heroin addicts may have a fixed
budget for all items other than heroin, representing the
minimum that is needed for shelter, food, and clothes; if
so, there would be unitary price elasticity. In contrast, more
affluent users of marijuana, for whom the drug accounts for a
small share of their total incomes, may change their total
consumption very little in response to price increases.

17. • For example, the intensity of a drug experience is influenced
by the time since last use, the expectations of the user, and
circumstances of use, summarized in the phrase, “drug, set,
and setting” (Zinberg, 1984).

20. Tim Bingham
Tel 086 389 3530
www.inef.ie
Email info@timbingham.ie