‘Young think drugs are fun but use is at epidemic level’
Photo shows - Gda Tomás Blake
“The biggest issue we have now in the country is the use and abuse of drugs. We don’t think that young people realise the dangers, and secondly, they don’t realise the consequences,” Gda Tomás Blake has told the Westmeath Examiner.
Speaking at a Drug and Alcohol Awareness meeting for young people in Castlepollard on January 29 last, where it emerged that 55 new psychoactive drugs were released to the market last year, Gda Blake said it is easy to get caught up in the world of drugs, which destroy lives and families.
“Young people think taking drugs is a bit of fun, it’s recreation with their friends, but if you get caught up with the wrong people, if they go down the road where they start owing money, the consequences fall on their families. Then their families are punished,” Gda Blake said.
“You only have to look at the news over the last couple of weeks to see what can happen a young person of 17. The dangers are there to be seen.”
He added that taking drugs can not only affect health, it can also have dramatic consequences on the path your life takes.
“Young people of 16, 17, and 18 are in the prime of their lives but taking drugs and getting caught might stop them from going to Australia, America and Canada – all the places young people love to go.
“Taking drugs might start out as fun, but if they get caught and prosecuted, they see all their friends heading off travelling around the world and they are left at home.
“Health-wise, there are dangers, consequences, and there are the problems it can lead to with family and losing friends.” Asking young people to “just stop and think”, he says students today know drugs can harm them, and it is now the equivalent of the “one punch kill”.
“It is an epidemic, and as you can see from the news, it’s about power – there is so much money to be made.
“These people that are supplying the drugs don’t care. They just want power, they want all the flashy stuff, it’s all about money.”
Agreeing that drugs are everywhere, in “every town and village”, he adds that young people are being forced into running and supplying drugs. “Young people are being intimidated, either in school or in the estates where they live.
“Intimidation is huge, and we can see it in different estates we go into, these people are coming in and intimidating young people and their families. They are forcing young people to sell drugs for them, and those people are getting little in return for it.
“You have it in schools where they are intimidated by older students, past pupils or youngsters who are not in school but who are around at lunchtime when students are out on their breaks.
“If they see a weak person they might push them to buy whatever drug they’re selling, or to sell them on.
“It can be hard for a young person for the simple reason that if you’re not strong-minded, you’re a quiet or shy person who may be vulnerable. But they should go and tell a teacher or a parent that they are being bullied into moving drugs, or selling or taking them.
“We all have to keep an eye on each other and look after each other. We all know who the strong people are in the schools, and who the vulnerable students are who might be coming from vulnerable backgrounds, and you have to look out for each other.
“Because the strong minded young people will stand up for themselves, but for the quiet or shy young person, they are too afraid to say anything and it might be too late before they do get to say anything.
Gda Blake had a warning about ‘bad batches’ of cocaine entering the country: “If you think about it, there’s no such thing as good cocaine – cocaine harms. There’s no such thing as good drugs.
“Drugs are bad because you do not know what’s in them. You have no idea what you’re taking, what chemicals are mixed in, and some people never get to tell the tale because it’s too late. They end up overdosing or getting heart attacks.”
Gda Blake says he hopes young people make the right decision, and stay away from drugs altogether.