Paul Delaney, Cornmarket Project Co-Ordinator
THE CO-ORDINATOR of Wexford-based Cornmarket rehabilitation project has spoken out about the dangers posed by new synthetic drugs which, he said, can create even greater destruction than cocaine or heroin.
“These are a completely new phenomenon” he said of the variety of drugs which Gardaí believed led to the death of a teenager in Cork earlier this month.
Following the death, the HSE issued a statement to all drug users stating that ‘there is no quality control on illegal drugs.
‘All drug users are advised that there is no guarantee that the drug you think you are buying and consuming is in fact the drug you are sold,’ they stated.
“The biggest problem with them is that they distort people’s cognitive functions,” Mr. Delaney added, referencing how neither cocaine nor heroin usually create such complications.
“When I first started working in Wexford twenty years ago, alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy and to a lesser extent heroin were the main substances that were misused,” he said.
“Now we have a changed landscape with drugs labelled as bath salts or plant food being bought over the internet or illegally imported by dealers.”
These illegal drugs, he said, have street names such as snow blow, annihilation, bounce and vanilla sky.
Sold online as herbal incense, Mr. Delaney described, ‘annihilation’ has become a commonly-used illegal substance in Wexford and throughout the South-East.
“It is a new form of synthetic cannabis and can bring about panic attacks and convulsions for the user,” he said.
The Cornmarket Project Co-Ordinator spoke with this newspaper following a visit by Drugs Minister Catherine Byrne to the vital local service.
Representatives of statutory, community and voluntary organisations, as well as public representatives and council officials, welcomed the Minister to Wexford for the launch of an innovative online programme which responds to drug and alcohol misuse.
The initiative comprises a range of online training courses as well as a web-based knowledge portal at southeastdrugsinfo.ie.
Read more in the Wexford Echo.