GARDA COMMISSIONER CALLS FOR HELP TO FIGHT DRUGS TRADE

The Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy called for greater community
support in the fight against illegal drug use.

He urged people to name drugs suppliers in an effort to tackle the
considerable challenge caused by the illicit drugs trade. Mr Murphy
said that he did not accept that the drugs problem was out of control.

He said that gardai would target whoever was involved and whoever was
supplying illegal drugs such as cocaine regardless of what strata of
society they came from.

Mr Murphy said that people who took illegal drugs were putting their
lives on the line every day as they did not know what was contained in them.

The Garda Commissioner's comments came amid growing concern about
cocaine use in Ireland which has been linked to a number of recent deaths.

Yesterday the Minister of State with responsibility for the national
drugs strategy, Pat Carey, said gardai would be targeting pubs and
clubs where they believed cocaine was being consumed in the run-up to
Christmas.

He also maintained that the strategy would be attempting to reach out
and educate people about the danger of the drug and using popular
websites such as Bebo and Facebook "to try and get the message
through to people in the 18 to 35-year-old age group".

Meanwhile, senior Garda sources believe that it is highly unlikely
that a single contaminated or extremely pure batch of cocaine is
responsible for a number of deaths and serious illnesses over recent weeks.

Senior Garda sources told The Irish Times there were no known links
between the incidents in which two Waterford men died, the death of
model Katy French and the events at the weekend in Mullingar and
Longford which left two men in hospital as a result of suspected
cocaine overdoses.

A 17-year-old teenager from Mullingar and a 26-year-old man from
Longford town were both in the intensive care unit at the Midland
Regional Hospital in Mullingar last night.

Their condition had improved yesterday evening from "critical" to "stable".

The Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Micheal Martin, said last
night that he thought that lessons would be learned from recent
cocaine-related deaths. "I think we are at a tipping point," he said.

Speaking on RTE he said that there was an opportunity to drive home
messages particularly to the cohort of people who were using cocaine
and other drugs.