LIMERICK City is at risk of becoming the “drug capital of Ireland” due to the availability of “cheap” drugs, particularly crack cocaine, fuelling homelessness and driving some into sex work, one Limerick councillor has warned.
Limerick councillor Sarah Beasley (Aontú) said the “stark reality” of drug addiction and homelessness is “really obvious in Limerick, because we are a small, compact city”.
“There’s new faces every day on the streets that I wouldn’t be familiar with. When I stop and ask them, they are coming to Limerick because of the drugs that are produced here,” Cllr Beasley claimed, warning that “we’re going to become the drug capital of Ireland”.
Cllr Beasley, who operates a mobile soup run for vulnerable people in Limerick City Centre, said people are being drawn to the city due to the “cheapness and availability” of drugs and that the city’s homeless numbers are rising.
The Aontú councillor claimed young children using electric scooters are being used by drug gangs to ferry drugs around the city, allowing the fast movement and supply of drugs to dealers.
“When your eyes are open and you’re looking around, I can see young lads on scooters actually delivering the drugs into a town, they’re 11 and 12 years of age. They’re being dragged in, the promise of a good life might be a Rolex watch, a Canada Goose jacket, but my God, once they’re in that system, there isn’t any way to get out.”
Cllr Beasley said the drugs being distributed in Limerick are “cheaper” and “stronger” than most other parts of the country.
“We love the city and, so many times, Limerick has had to stand up for itself when we get negative (publicity) and this is not what we want,” she told the Limerick Today current affairs programme on local radio station Live 95.
“We have the Ryder Cup in two years’ time, and, I don’t want Americans or Europeans coming into the city and that’s the impression that they walk away with from Limerick.”
Cllr Beasley said that the vulnerable people caught up in addiction and homelessness “are somebody’s children”.
“And the prostitution in Limerick from these people in addiction is huge, HIV is on the rise again — Can you imagine? And that’s because they’re sharing needles; they’re selling their bodies for sex, and it doesn’t matter what their sexuality is, they’ll go with anybody to get a bag of crack, that costs €20 euros, just €20,” she claimed.
Cllr Beasley, who co-chairs a Council drug task-force with Limerick Mayor John Moran, admitted that the drug and homeless situation locally “is grim”.
