WORLD GONE TO POT AND FAR WORSE
Posted on 31st December 2023
On Wednesday there was an astonishing & beautiful moon, which seemed suspended by magic over the Hill of Slane. I took it as a good omen. On Thursday the Boyne, swollen by the rains, flowed by the house the colour of light chocolate. A reminder that we will suffer from an increasing number of floods in the future. Climate change will from now on be constantly knocking on our door. Welcome to 2024.
Years ago ,in 1970 to be precise, it was my first year at Harvard. I had never been to the States before and had little knowledge or experience with drugs. I was to have a rude awakening. As an international student I arrived a few days before my classmates. Alone in the dorm I stepped out of the shower to discover the bathroom was being used by outsiders as a shooting gallery to inject heroin. Users and dealer both present. I had to go to the university cops to sort the situation out. As you can imagine, all alone in my dorm I was more than a little shaken . Now I have to put my hand up here and admit I smoked too much marijuana in my first year at Harvard. My mother told me she was shocked by my demeanour when I returned home. In any event I cut back my consumption dramatically. I was determined to get a good degree. my grades shot up. In those days there wasn’t much cocaine about.
Hard drugs are a killer. There have been several fatalities in our family , the consequences have to be spelt out clearly. I was particularly struck by what Chief Superintendent Seamus Bolan had to say on the matter. “The money isn’t coming from deprived areas, it is coming from people who are middle class or upper class, people holding down good jobs and believe it is acceptable to use cocaine at the weekend without accepting any responsibility.” Nowadays. it is so easy to get drugs. A guy on a moped rocks up, and away you go, but maybe, this New Years Eve you might stop and think of the consequences of your purchase. You, and many like you, are feeding a vast criminal enterprise that is causing murder and mayhem in our streets and now in Brownes Restaurant in Blanchardstown, an establishment frequented by none other than the Taoiseach. Justice Minister Helen McEntee called the act “disgusting” and no doubt she will make sure the Gardai have the resources to deal with the fallout. However, rest assured, drugs are a dangerous scourge, & we have yet to see the effects of fentanyl.
