Suspicion Grows That Heroin Dealer Was 'Permitted' To Import Hard Drugs The Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is examining scores of drug seizures, arrests and covert operations involving Kieran Boylan, a convicted heroin dealer whose relationship with the force is the subject of a collusion inquiry following an expose by The Sunday Times. The garda ombudsman now suspects that Boylan was "permitted" to import huge quantities of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, which he supplied to low-level dealers, who were later arrested, while he continued to wholesale drugs to other criminal gangs. [continues 383 words]
A pilot scheme is encouraging druggies to kick the habit by giving them money to donate to charity John Mooney Teenage drug addicts who agree to attend detoxification programmes will be offered a chance to get high on philanthropy instead. Young substance abusers in Ireland will be given financial donations for their favourite charities to help them to kick their habits. The Drug Treatment Centre Board (DTCB), an independent, government-funded organisation that offers support services to drug users in Dublin, has launched the initiative, which has already helped some addicts to rebuild their lives. [continues 472 words]
THE number of gardai assigned to combat drug dealing and smuggling is fewer than 340, according to a confidential security memo seen by The Sunday Times. It indicates that almost every drugs unit in Ireland is underresourced, contradicting claims by Michael McDowell, the justice minister, that gardai have more resources than ever. The Garda National Drugs Unit -- an elite squad -- has fewer than 50 staff, including administration, split between four shifts. Other national units, including Special Branch and the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, have in excess of 100 officers each. [continues 606 words]
A DRUG dealer is attempting to overturn his conviction on the basis that Cyril Kelly, the former High Court judge, heard part of his co-defendant's smuggling case in private chambers. The former judge will be subpoenaed as a witness for the Dublin drug dealer, who claims that he would not have been convicted if the evidence had been heard in public. The shadowy drama, involving a drug trafficker and a spy, threatens to revive memories of the Philip Sheedy affair. Kelly resigned as a judge after it was revealed that he had reduced the sentence of a drunk driver. [continues 388 words]
In Jersey City, DARE officers still preach anti-drug messages in many of the elementary schools, but there's also a home-grown program to bring in top students from the high schools to spread the word to the younger charges. In Toms River, the effort combines police officers combining DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, with other strategies that teach broader lessons about how to cope with the peer pressure that could drive a child to drugs or alcohol. The potpourri of programs is a growing pattern in New Jersey districts, where drug prevention has become a mix-and-match of approaches that has gone well beyond the brochure-toting police officer and the "Just Say No" posters of years past. [continues 861 words]
Worried about increased drug use among schoolchildren, New Jersey's school board leaders gave a loud vote of support Saturday for local districts to do random drug tests not only on their athletes but all students. In a largely symbolic act, delegates to the New Jersey School Boards Association overwhelmingly backed a policy resolution that supports random drug testing in schools where substance abuse is determined to be a significant problem. More than a halfdozen districts including Ridgefield Park and North Bergen have sought to test their athletes at random. [continues 546 words]
