Drugs problem ‘never ending’ – councillors

Dealers are brazenly selling their drugs on the streets of local towns and villages, councillors told gardaí at the January meeting of Westmeath’s Joint Policing Committee.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr John Dolan said that at a recent meeting in Athlone Civic Centre he looked out the window and saw drugs being dealt “right in front of our eyes”.

The Fine Gael councillor asked if there was anything to prevent gardaí from carrying out random checks on people suspected of drug dealing.

“We all know, ye all know who’s dealing them...

“If they are given hassle, it will have an impact,” he said.

Cllr Frankie Keena said that the drugs problem “seems never ending”.

“It seems to be increasing and there seems to be diverse drugs on the market. The focus is not just on young people now. It’s right across the board, white collar workers are dabbling in drugs for recreational purposes,” he said.

The were 98 detections for drug dealing in the Westmeath Garda Division last year, a two per cent decrease on 2018. The number of detections for dealing in the Athlone district was 22 last year, down from 32, while in the Mullingar district there were 76 detections for dealing, a year on year increase of eight.

The number of detections for drugs possession in the Athlone district was 77, up from 62 in 2018, while in Mullingar there were 1,077 detections, up from 913. The primary reason for the high number of detections in the Mullingar area is because of two music festivals in the locality.

Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy said that there was “no doubt” that gardaí were “making inroads” on the drugs problem locally.

“It’s going on in a lot of towns and is a problem is everywhere,” he said.