All-Ireland co-operation needed in fight against drugs

Unfortunately it seems that society does not pay much attention to the scourge of illegal drug use until there are high profile fatalities. I recognise that family grief is the same whether the victim is from a rich or poor family or whether the deceased was an individual with a high media profile. But when there is a high profile fatality it seems that we get lots of contrite hand wringing from government and blustering from the opposition but little practical action.
In the previous two election campaigns all of the main parties promised increased numbers of Garda to tackle criminal gangs and drug lords. Of course following the elections there was no delivery on these promises.
We often hear politicians and media commentators asking what can be done to combat these purveyors of death. It’s obvious that the parties of power and their supporters in the media have short memories. The stock excuse for failure is that there are limited funds in the budget. Not so long ago these same politicians had no problems passing emergency legislation and finding a bottomless pit of financial resources to defend and maintain a British border in Ireland. The media was swamped with fictitious stories and black propaganda about republicans allegedly importing large quantities of drugs. But in over 30 years not a scintilla of evidence was ever produced to corroborate these allegations. Not one drugs shipment supposedly destined for the IRA was ever intercepted nor one IRA volunteer ever charged in connection with such offences.
Questions must be asked as to why politicians do not put the same drive and resources into the fight against the drug barons and criminal syndicates that are targeting our communities.
The political agenda must now move on to providing accountable policing services, so that the police services, North and South, can together rid our communities of the scourge of drugs. There has only been two periods in which the Garda Síochána adopted a high profile on the drugs issue. One was during the 1980s when they attempted to prevent republican activists from organising communities to stand up to the drug barons and drive them out of their neighbourhoods. The second was following the brutal murder of Veronica Guerin who was murdered because she exposed some of the actual Godfathers of the drugs trade.  Credit must be given to the Gardaí in their follow-up operation to this murder when they succeeded in putting some of the major importers and their acolytes behind bars for a long time.
I would urge a pro-active co-operative approach by all elected representatives, community activists, trade unions, Gardaí, PSNI and customs to tackle this growing problem and send out the message that there will be no hiding place for these parasites.