North Belfast: 13 yr old snorting cocaine report

[pete2]

A North Belfast community worker who “thought he had seen it all” has spoken of his horror at finding at a local child snorting cocaine.

..a youth worker with the Ardoyne Community Empowerment Partnership, saw the 13-year-old taking the Class A drug on wasteland near the Jamaica Court area a fortnight ago. Shortly after his shocking discovery, he found another 13-year-old smoking a bong in the same area...

[the youth worker said:] “never thought anything could get to me the way this has.. I want to make a plea to the drug dealers to stop selling to kids, because they are ruining their lives for the sake of a few pounds. Parents also need to know what is going on in Ardoyne. Some of them seem to think letting their kids drink in the street is okay because they know where they are. But standing about drinking only leads to trying drugs and eventually anti-social behaviour.”

Belfast Media | News | 13-year-old cocaine users

according to this link the (Upper) Ardoyne Community Empowerment Partnership serves the mainly Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist area Glenbryn in North Belfast.
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/nbcau-index/...rtnerships.htm
but I don't think thats the area hes on about, JCSkinner might have a better idea.

[MsAnneThrope]

Yes it is extremely sad and worrying. I posted earlier in the week of a case in Munster where they were treating a 10 year old for heroin addiction, as well as others in the 12 yr old bracket.

Child (10) battles heroin addiction

If these kids aren't detoxed and kept clean they'll either be (1) dead within a few years or (2) the next generation of street criminals

As far as I'm concerned most of these cases can be traced back to unfit parents. We had a thread going last week about it, and children self-harming/attempting suicide.

[JCSkinner]

This is not news to me. I was in the Cliftonville stand at the Irish Cup final yesterday at Windsor and almost choked due to the amount of dope being smoked.
Now, I'm anti-prohibition of cannabis, but when you're in a fire-risk condemned stand full of kids, it's not appropriate to be smoking dope. But the ubiquity of it was what was depressing. Every second or third bunch of lads passing joints back and forth.
Was talking to a Crues fan afterwards who told me that it was much the same in their end too. That's both communities in North Belfast covered.
As for Ardoyne itself, when you have one of the biggest coke dealers around being protected by and pally with local provos, who intimidate the community and insist that proper policing isn't acceptable and their thug rule should continue, what else can you expect?
Coke is ubiquitous in Ardoyne. As is speed, dope and of course alcohol abuse. And it's nothing new. I recall one fella from Rosapenna who got a huge claim for a car accident - enough to have pretty much bought a small house in the area at the time (early 90s). The cash was gone in four months on coke and speed.
Re the OP, Jamaica Court is in The Bone, lower Ardoyne basically. It's firmly Republican as a district.

[factual]

This is not news to me. I was in the Cliftonville stand at the Irish Cup final yesterday at Windsor and almost choked due to the amount of dope being smoked.
Now, I'm anti-prohibition of cannabis, but when you're in a fire-risk condemned stand full of kids, it's not appropriate to be smoking dope. But the ubiquity of it was what was depressing. Every second or third bunch of lads passing joints back and forth.
Was talking to a Crues fan afterwards who told me that it was much the same in their end too. That's both communities in North Belfast covered.
As for Ardoyne itself, when you have one of the biggest coke dealers around being protected by and pally with local provos, who intimidate the community and insist that proper policing isn't acceptable and their thug rule should continue, what else can you expect?
Coke is ubiquitous in Ardoyne. As is speed, dope and of course alcohol abuse. And it's nothing new. I recall one fella from Rosapenna who got a huge claim for a car accident - enough to have pretty much bought a small house in the area at the time (early 90s). The cash was gone in four months on coke and speed.

This is a sad situation--as usual it seems to be the most deprived areas that suffer the most.

PS Comiserations on the match result, was there a good crowd?

[Person of the Plantation]

This is not news to me. I was in the Cliftonville stand at the Irish Cup final yesterday at Windsor and almost choked due to the amount of dope being smoked.
Now, I'm anti-prohibition of cannabis, but when you're in a fire-risk condemned stand full of kids, it's not appropriate to be smoking dope. But the ubiquity of it was what was depressing. Every second or third bunch of lads passing joints back and forth.
Was talking to a Crues fan afterwards who told me that it was much the same in their end too. That's both communities in North Belfast covered.
As for Ardoyne itself, when you have one of the biggest coke dealers around being protected by and pally with local provos, who intimidate the community and insist that proper policing isn't acceptable and their thug rule should continue, what else can you expect?
Coke is ubiquitous in Ardoyne. As is speed, dope and of course alcohol abuse. And it's nothing new. I recall one fella from Rosapenna who got a huge claim for a car accident - enough to have pretty much bought a small house in the area at the time (early 90s). The cash was gone in four months on coke and speed.
Re the OP, Jamaica Court is in The Bone, lower Ardoyne basically. It's firmly Republican as a district.

Would this 'protected ' thug happen to have a surname that is the same as a small group of islands off the north down coast???????

[pete2]

What is the going rate for a wrap of cocaine there? I'm wondering how a 13 yr old affords that habit.

edit- I was suprised about this report because it was just recently the media had reports of the provos 'losting control of Ardoyne' to dissenters. Now we see reports of drug abuse, but if it was already a problem...

[JCSkinner]

I honestly don't know, Pete. I don't touch the stuff. I've been offered it quite a few times for free by acquaintances, though, so it can't be too pricey. Certainly, given it's ubiquity, it can't be beyond local pockets, and none of them are too deep.
Drug abuse has been a problem in Ardoyne for a long time. Even when the Provos were kneecapping kids for having joints, it was still a big problem. It's certainly got worse in recent years, with a lot more people heading for class As.

[odie1kanobe]

Great parents clearly.

[JCSkinner]

This is a sad situation--as usual it seems to be the most deprived areas that suffer the most.

PS Comiserations on the match result, was there a good crowd?

Just saw your PS.
There was a very decent crowd - probably a final against the Glens or the Blues would have brought another thousand or two, but our end was jammed (fears of a Hillsborough at one point) and fair play to the Crues (not the best supported club in Belfast by any means) for drumming up a good support, even if they were utterly outsung for almost the entire game, even after they scored.
Best of all, there was zero trouble at the event, before, during or afterwards. All the Reds fans took the defeat in decent spirit, even if the ref was as poor as that lad in the Barca-Chelsea game last week.
Fifteen quid in to see a 'national' cup final, or (so my cousin informs me) you could drop fifteen hundred on going to Rome to see Merchandise United play in the Champions [sic] league [sic again] final.
No contest in my mind, even if we did lose. It was a good day out and it was a positive event for the whole of North Belfast.
Congrats to the hatchetmen. But we'll be back next year.