Johnny Connolly is a criminologist in the Alcohol and Drugs Research Unit of the Health Research Board. He has researched and written on community policing, drugs and crime and alternatives to imprisonment. He is a Board member of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. Johnny gave a talk outlining current research and policy on the broad areas of crime and drugs. He explained where the statistics in use come from, what they explain and what they may conceal. He also went through recent trends in drug consumption (rise in the Celtic tiger years, subsequent fall and the ‘headshop’ phenomena) and the official response to this. The presentation was followed by questions and answers. This presentation was part of Dublin City Libraries Crime and the City series. https://soundcloud.com/dublincitypubliclibrary/sets/crime-and-the-city

1. Drugs and crime in Ireland –
Ilac centre library
Johnny Connolly Alcohol and Drug Research Unit: 8th
September 2011

2. Overview
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•
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Background
The official picture – damned statistics
Understanding drug-related crime

3. Background

4. Background
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International campaign against drugs
Misuse of Drugs Act 1977
Summer of 1996 – resurgence of heroin use
and drug-related deaths
Anti-drug campaign
Local meetings, vigils and marches
Murder of Journalist Veronica Guerin
The state responds
Headshops

5. The official picture
Trends in prosecutions for supply, possession and total
drug offence prosecutions 1993–2005
12000
10000
8000
Drug supply (s15
MDA)
6000
Drug possession
(s3MDA)
4000
Total drug offences
2000
20
05
20
03
20
01
19
99
19
97
19
95
19
93
0

6. Cannabis and possession offences
compared 1995 - 2005
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
0
Cannabis
Possession

7. Heroin and cocaine prosecutions
compared 1995 - 2005
1400
1200
1000
800
Heroin
600
Cocaine
400
200
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
0

8. Under 17 year old’s prosecuted for
drug offences, by gender 19952005
600
500
400
300
200
100
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
0
Male
Female

10. Drug offences 2003-2008
16000
14000
12000
Number
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Total drug offences
5324
5798
8290
8924
11647
14374
Drug possession for personal use
3276
3761
5864
6107
8352
10746
Drug possession for supply
1715
1654
1983
2291
2654
2967

11. Cannabis and total seizures
12000
Number
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
All seizures
6362
8417
10444
9991
5494
Cannabis-type substances
3555
4243
5176
5652
2314

12. Other drug seizures
2000
1800
Number
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Ecstasy-type substances
1083
806
689
858
1173
730
90
Heroin
660
612
763
1254
1698
1611
1455
Cocaine
566
753
1045
1500
1749
1010
635
Amphetamines
211
145
125
277
235
126
72

13. But what are we missing? The ‘dark’
figure of crime law enforcement?
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•
•
•
•
•
The law in statute & practice
1 out of 4 crimes reported
1 out of 11 if shoplifting
included
40% reported are not
recorded
‘Dark figure’ higher for drugrelated crime (More serious
crimes – corruption of govt.,
police, business and banking
systems not explored)
Most evidence relates to
‘street-level’ crime (theft,
burglary, robbery, assault)
•
•
•
•
Tolerance (of soft
drugs)
Public Apathy/
disillusionment
Fear of reprisal
Discretion and
selective
enforcement (eg
police and prison)

14. The psycho-pharmacological model
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•
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Where effects of intoxication cause criminal,
especially violent, behaviour
Consistent link between violent crime and
alcohol
Link largely refuted in regard to heroin and
cannabis, some evidence with crack cocaine
Social environment more of a powerful
contributor to violence than effects of drugs

15. The economic model-drug use and
acquisitive crime
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Increase in economically-motivated crimes after
addiction and reduction after treatment programmes
Garda study 1997 drug users responsible for 66%
detected crime. 2004 study drug users responsible
for 28% crime
Increased employment and treatment possible
explanation Public perception of high association
between drug use and violent crime not reflected in
rates of violent crime by users
Drug users twice as likely to be caught offending as
non-users

16. Two garda studies compared
Keogh 1997
Furey and Browne 2004
Crime as main income source
59%
13%
Unemployment rate
84%
55%
Drug first used - cannabis
51%
55%
First introduced to drugs by a
friend
81%
86%
Drugs sourced from local
dealer
46%
76%
Number who had been to
prison
81%
66%
Estimated daily expenditure
€51
€75

17. Systemic crime – illicit drug markets
as a cause of crime
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Understanding markets (Seizures, Price, Purity, Drug routes)
Stabilisation of local drug markets over time
local drug markets and community disturbance and anti-social
behaviour
Drug users have relatively easy access to drugs in own areas
Local drug markets fear among local residents to co-operate
with law enforcement due to reprisal from drug dealers
Involvement of organised crime: Europol reports majority of
suspects are Irish nationals or involving non-Irish nationals
associates of Irish nationals
Reports high levels of co-operation between Irish nationals
across the drug market as ‘unique in European context
How organised is organised crime? (New law 2009)

18. The common cause model
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•
•
Drugs and crime
common elements of
delinquent or deviant
lifestyle
Drugs and crime not
causally linked but
both produced by
underlying social
factors such as
inequality and
deprivation
Profile
•
•
Single, male, aged 14 to 30,
urban, living in the parental
home,
from large and often broken
families,
left school before the legal
minimum age of 16,
high levels of unemployment,
best ever job being in the
lowest socio-economic class,
high number convictions and
rates of recidivism,
a history of family members
being in prison,
from local authority housing
and areas of high levels of
long-term unemployment.
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•

19. Summarising the link between
drugs and crime
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Most drug users do not commit crimes other than
those of possession
There is a link between some forms of illicit drug use
and crime (Mostly heroin and cocaine).
Most problematic users receive prison sentences for
drug-related offences rather than drug offences
Most problematic users began criminal career before
drug use
Drug use speeds up the rate of offending
There is no clear causal link between drug use and
crime
Links between alcohol and violent crime exist in
evidence

20. Drug market research in Ireland
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The illicit drug market in Ireland (Connolly 2005)
Crack cocaine in the Dublin region: an evidence base for a crack
cocaine strategy (Connolly et al 2008)
Methods included:
In-depth interviews with users, sellers, drug treatment staff and police
Criminal justice data
Drug treatment data (National Drug Treatment Reporting System)
Key findings included:
Availability of crack cocaine originally centred in one Dublin city centre
location
Dublin city market originally dominated by non-Irish nationals
Availability has extended beyond city centre hub into Dublin suburbs
Price is high and stable – such pricing may deter use for many users
Dealers employed a number of risk management strategies in
response to policing – open market became closed
Illicit drug markets in Ireland (Connolly, forthcoming 2012)

21. Who is most affected by drugrelated crime?

22. Community responses to street
level drug markets

23. State response – Criminal Assets
Bureau & New Drug Laws

24. Policing communities or
community policing?

25. 1992 – Drug barons reign
1997 – Drug barons run

26. Changing nature of drug markets
Hidden, Credit-based, Mobile, Violent,
Younger

27. Consequences of drug markets for
local communities
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Intimidation and violence
No – go areas, particularly after dark
Community stigma
Development of gangs
Perpetuation of cycle of violence
Fear of reprisal
Breakdown in community cooperation
Failure of regeneration

28. Getting real about supply control
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Third biggest market globally after oil and arms
•
Global value $94 billion, Wine & Beer $24 billion, Tobacco
$21.6
•
Street prices far higher massive profits from dealing
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Retail value four times higher than the wholesale value
•
Little evidence supply control long-lasting impact on dealing
levels – some evidence of containment/ displacement
•
Estimated that 10–20% available drugs seized
•
Amount undetected means long-term impact minimal
•
UK study 80% to be seized to have any real effect
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Drug distribution adapt quickly, arrested dealers replaced
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Demand inelastic for problematic users, relative to others
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Increased prices may simply lead to more acquisitive crime

29. Is that a Celtic Tiger I
see? Whose law and
order?

30. Current approaches/challenges
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National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016
Head shops and the internet
Legislation and the GNDU
Imprisonment
Dial to stop dealing and intimidation
Pilot - Family Support Group and GN Drugs
Unit
Joint Policing Committees and Local Policing
Fora

31. Debates
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Legalisation/decriminalisation
Depenalisation
The Portuguese solution
The Dutch solution
Community based mediation and
problem solving – restorative
justice

32. Go raibh maith agat
JCONNOLLY@HRB.IE