Most recent stats are 4 years old
“A teenager could walk into Cork city today and have an easier time getting a bag of MDMA than they would getting a Heineken.”
That’s according to UCC Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) society member Emily Shilling who is organising Ireland’s only registered event marking International Overdose Awareness Day this coming Tuesday.
The candlelit vigil will see 376 candles laid out in front of the courthouse on Anglesea Street, one for each Irish person who died from drug overdose in 2017.
Figures from 2017 are the most recent official data made available to date in Ireland relating to drug overdose deaths.
The vigil, which seeks to raise awareness around the growing issue of drug overdose and the stigmatisation of drug users, will feature a guest speaker who has himself overdosed on a number of occasions.
All are invited to attend the vigil and to light a candle for somebody that was lost to overdose.
“These aren't 376 numbers on an Excel spreadsheet, it's 376 people whose lives were cut short by something preventable. Hopefully this very brave man will humanise the numbers we are seeing plastered all over social media,” Ms Shilling told the Cork Independent.
According to Ms Shilling, 2017 was the first time since 2013 that the amount of overdose deaths has increased from year to year in Ireland.
She believes the reason for the lack of more recent overdose figures is that “no one is in a rush” to publish the data.
“Lack of education and stigma are the biggest problems around drug policy in Ireland today.
“Kids can't talk about it, kids can't learn about it, teachers can't teach about it, politicians don't want to mention it,” she said.
The UCC SSDP society is currently fighting to have harm-reduction education implemented within secondary level curriculum in order to teach young people about drug use.
Together with the Irish Second Level Students’ Union, the UCC SSDP plans to carry out a survey amongst secondary school students asking them about the harm-prevention education they have received to date.
On foot of the survey results, the group will then go to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) asking that a chapter on drug harm-reduction be included the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum for senior cycle students.
“We are sacrificing lives in exchange for keeping the status quo and for keeping people comfortable and for selling our SPHE books the way they are, without making changes,” said Ms Shilling.
Meanwhile, a bill that would make it easier for people with small, non-violent crimes to have them wiped from their records, has now completed it’s fifth stage of debate in the Seanad.
The Criminal Justice (Rehabilitative Periods) Bill was launched by Independent Senator Lynn Ruane in 2019.
The bill would expand fairer access to spent convictions, minor convictions that don’t have to be disclosed after set periods of time when returning to education, applying for a job or being garda vetted.
Ms Shilling said the bill would go a long way in stopping the criminalisation and stigmatising of drug users.
Ms Shilling added: “I'm 20. If I walk down the street and catch a conviction for drug possession, that will destroy my chances of employment in the future, that will destroy any chance I have of class mobility.”
“When we criminalise a drug user, we put that label on them. People don't want to work with them, people don't want to help them. That will of course compound your drug use. The only people that will accept you in a society that is so stigmatising is other drug users,” she added.
Ms Shilling said she hopes Tuesday’s vigil will inspire other people around the country to do the same in the future.
It takes place from 11am on Anglesea Street outside the courthouse.
To learn more about International Overdose Awareness Day and how to organise an event, visit overdoseday.com.
The SSDP said it doesn’t condone or encourage the use of drugs but offers the following anti-overdosing advice to anyone who has decided to do so:
- Don’t use drugs alone. If you are alone, make sure somebody knows where you are and what you’re taking.
- Start low, go slow. Start by taking a microdose, half what you want to take and then half it again.
- Wait one-two hours before you redose.
- Don’t mix drugs. This includes any prescription medication. If you must, check out ‘tripsit combination chart’ for a quick reference on mixing drugs and do deeper research on how each drug you’re taking will interact with another.
- Test your drugs. Lifesaving drug purity testing kits can be bought at local shops like the Funky Skunk and are easy to use. Test them yourself and don’t trust a dealer who says they’ve tested it.