Cannabis haul! This is a Joke, Wake Up Smell the Beans

[sarahj]

I'm not so naive to think Belfast is cannabis-free. All jokes aside, it would be interesting to know exactly how widely consumed it is in the north vis à vis the south.

SLAN survey data on illicit drug use. - National Documentation Centre on Drug Use

"Cannabis was the most commonly used illegal drug, with lifetime use rates of 16.3% in 1998 and 18.6% in 2002, and current use rates of 6.2% in 1998 and 6.3% in 2002. The vast majority of those who reported taking only one drug used cannabis. In 1998, 89.6% of illicit drug users had taken cannabis within the past year, decreasing to 88.1% in 2002. "

[JCSkinner]

SLAN survey data on illicit drug use. - National Documentation Centre on Drug Use

"Cannabis was the most commonly used illegal drug, with lifetime use rates of 16.3% in 1998 and 18.6% in 2002, and current use rates of 6.2% in 1998 and 6.3% in 2002. The vast majority of those who reported taking only one drug used cannabis. In 1998, 89.6% of illicit drug users had taken cannabis within the past year, decreasing to 88.1% in 2002. "

More cannabis being used in the North then. See here:
25 January 2008 - Drug use in Northern Ireland: First results from the 2006/07 drug prevalence survey | Northern Ireland Executive

The key findings relating to drug prevalence in Northern Ireland in 2006/07 are:

* 28% of respondents aged 15-64 years reported taking any illegal drugs at some point in their life.
* Cannabis was the most commonly used illegal drug, with 25% of all adults reporting ever having used it; 7% reported use in the year before the survey; and 3% in the month before the survey.
* After cannabis, the most commonly used illegal drugs were: poppers (8%), ecstasy (8%), magic mushrooms (7%), LSD (7%), amphetamines (6%), cocaine (5%) and solvents (4%).
* Heroin and crack use were reported by less than 1% of the adult population (lifetime prevalence of 0.5% for heroin and 0.4% for crack).
* Illegal drug use is generally more common among men than women: 34% of men reported lifetime use of any illegal drugs compared to 22% of women; 14% of men reported last year use compared to 5% of women; and 5% of men reported last month use compared to 2% of women.

[femmefatale]

I first saw cannabis in Belfast c. 1985 or 1986, but it remained a fairly small deal as far as I was aware for a year or two after that, still largely restricted to the Holy Lands area and to alternative communities like the Giro's punks, the early Goths and some of the musos.
However, by about 1990, the town was awash in drugs, primarily ecstasy and amphetamines, but also the aforementioned soap bar.
Later again, heroin arrived, but that thankfully affected other areas moreso than Belfast. More recently, as in Dublin, cocaine has become cheap and plentiful in Belfast among all social strata.
I'm open to correction on all of the above in terms of earlier dates of arrival of course. I wasn't exactly spending all of my time tracking drug use in the city. Those are merely the earliest dates I recall.

I'm not in a position to challenge any of that. I grew up in a working-class 'republican' area and there were no 'visible signs' of drugs being sold/used. Alcohol was a big problem and things like glue-sniffing were a problem of sorts. I think drugs were much less a feature of life there than they would have been in a comparable area in, for example, the UK.

[JCSkinner]

I also grew up in a working class republican area and then as now it was the local paramilitaries dealing the stuff.

[sarahj]

I'm not so naive to think Belfast is cannabis-free. All jokes aside, it would be interesting to know exactly how widely consumed it is in the north vis à vis the south.

Also, if you can navigate your way through this (http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/drug_use_bulletin2.pdf), it splits North and South up by health boards and gives lifetime prevalence, current use and recent use of every drug for each board. (I would go through it for you and pick out the relevant figures but it's far too late for that!)

[femmefatale]

I also grew up in a working class republican area and then as now it was the local paramilitaries dealing the stuff.

I am not an apologist for republican paramilitaries. Having said that, in all the years I lived where I lived, I never once heard anyone suggest that they were involved in drug dealing. Not the IRA anyway.

[JCSkinner]

There are good reasons for that, as anyone dragged down an alleyway for a six pack could testify.
It's common knowledge that the biggest drug dealer in Ardoyne, by which I mean hard drugs not cannabis, is a very close friend of leading provisionals and functions with their blessing.
Of course that fact won't prevent true believer shinners from coming on this site and trying to BS otherwise.
Thus it always was, the Provos speaking with forked tongues about drugs when it suited them then heading off to the house or shebeen for a few lines of toot with the lads.

[femmefatale]

There are good reasons for that, as anyone dragged down an alleyway for a six pack could testify.
It's common knowledge that the biggest drug dealer in Ardoyne, by which I mean hard drugs not cannabis, is a very close friend of leading provisionals and functions with their blessing.
Of course that fact won't prevent true believer shinners from coming on this site and trying to BS otherwise.
Thus it always was, the Provos speaking with forked tongues about drugs when it suited them then heading off to the house or shebeen for a few lines of toot with the lads.

Well, this is what you say. I grew up there, didn't see drug abuse/peddling, and never heard anyone link the IRA with the selling of drugs. And for the record, few people I know are 'true believers', as you call them.

This is off-topic, so I guess we should leave it there.

[JCSkinner]

If you're saying you grew up in Ardoyne and never saw drug use or heard anyone link certain dealers with the Provos, then I'm going to say flat out that you're lying.
http://www.politics.ie/northern-irel...ne-report.html
The World Today Archive - Suicide epidemic in Belfast
Newshound: Daily Northern Ireland news catalog - The People article

[femmefatale]

If you're saying you grew up in Ardoyne and never saw drug use or heard anyone link certain dealers with the Provos, then I'm going to say flat out that you're lying.
http://www.politics.ie/northern-irel...ne-report.html
The World Today Archive - Suicide epidemic in Belfast
Newshound: Daily Northern Ireland news catalog - The People article

You are extremely quick to accuse others of lying! I grew up in West, not North, Belfast. I thought you were referring to working class republican areas in Belfast generally. I never once heard it suggested that the IRA were involved in bringing drugs into the area. That's all. Oh, I also never saw drug use/peddling there. I have seen signs of it in recent years.