Drugs, Teenagers, Stupid Ideas.

All rolled into one.
Taken from this morning's Independent.

"Two teenagers arrested for running a cocaine factory were merely acting as "minders" for a drugs gang, it has emerged.

The two 15-year-olds were found carrying €15,000 of the drug while walking on the street in Clondalkin, and a follow-up search of a house uncovered a cocaine-mixing factory containing €55,000 of the drug.

According to garda sources, the two teenagers were not responsible for the factory but were looking after it for a drugs gang.

The two boys, one from Tallaght and the other from Clondalkin, were detained overnight by gardai last Saturday and were released into the custody of their parents the next day.

A file on the case is being sent to the DPP.

The cocaine-mixing factory was located in a house in the Newlands Manor Estate, a gated development of townhouses and duplexes which was only built in 2001. It is located beside the Green Isle Hotel and is around one mile from Clondalkin village.

Local Labour councillor Robert Dowds said he had received reports in recent months of people being asked to store drugs by pushers.

"When their houses are raided, they are the ones who actually have the drugs. It can have appalling consequences for individuals."

Some people may have been intimidated into accepting the drugs, while others were doing it for money, he added.

Mr Dowds called for a national debate on drugs to examine ways of reducing the demand for them, including the possibility of legalising some drugs.

"I hate the idea of people taking drugs but I think everything should be looked at," he said."


I was shocked to read this, 15 is the same age as the little Goth Kid.
What the hell?
Mr Dowd must be smoking the old weed himself if he think legalising 'some drugs' are going to do anything at all to reduce the demand for them. Which drungs are okay? Coke, Heroin, Grass? Will it be decided by weight? Purity? Personal use?
If it is legal to, say, carry a gram of coke on your person-for personal use, how convenient does that make it for the dealer? Now suddenly his product might be legally carried, in the right dosage of course. He can divide his goods up among a whole slew of young lads, to sell. Hey, it's legal right?*
If the shooting of poor Anthony Campbell has shown us anything, it is that people dealing in drugs don't respect any law, any right, not even the most basic right to life. And because of that they should be hounded until they have no place to run and no place to hide. Driving a Lexus? Where did the money come from? Living in a nice apartment, who pays the rent? Go abroad four times a year? Who's paying for it? Living a great life on the dole? Bring in the CAB, check just who or what is paying for the lavish lifestyle.
Use Rudy Giuliani's 'broken window' as a starter. Don't ignore the small stuff, start with it. If the dealers step out of line, even by parking in the wrong zone, act. Step up the pressure. Make it so uncomfortable for them to ply their trade that they wonder is it worth it. You will always have the men and women who just don't give a shit, but maybe you can effect the thinking of those coming up, the kids who see these fuckers driving around in their swank cars with gobs of cash, and are impressed and want to be part of that life.
It is not hard to impress a teenager. We need, as a society, to stop letting our youth see the criminal life as a viable option to escaping poverty.
The last thing this country needs is a Councillor like Dowd softening his stance.


*before anyone points out that they might be a slight whiff of the hypocrite from this post. Any and all drug taking I did in my misspent youth is firmly shuddered over and I reserve the right to have grown the fuck up and hold different opinions now that I am in my thirties. Even then I didn't think it should be legal, If I was caught It was my own stupid fault.