Wexford councillor’s concerns over synthetic drugs that are ‘making people psychotic’

Amid calls for increased garda resources and even satellite garda stations, Cllr Hynes has urged people to “get real” and focus on the crux of the issue – drugs.

"We have a huge problem with drugs,” he said. “It’s something that’s not being addressed in all the commentary around this. You have these synthetic drugs – ‘blow’ and ‘trans’ – which are highly dangerous. They are making people psychotic.

"You have your traditional drugs like cocaine and heroin,” he continued. “We know the effects of these drugs. With these new synthetic drugs, we don’t know what they’re doing to people.

"We also have crack cocaine in use, which makes people extremely volatile.”

These synthetic substances to which Cllr Hynes refers are generally manufactured in labs in the Netherlands and Eastern Europe, but are also imported from as far away as China.

Many of them were initially on sale in so called “head shops” a number of years ago before being outlawed.

Cllr Hynes feels that, in the clamber for greater garda numbers and stiffer penalties for criminals, there’s been a lack of focus on the root causes of some of the issues we’re seeing on our streets.

Noting newly appointed Taoiseach Simon Harris’s commitment to policing and tackling crime, Cllr Hynes pointed out “not once did he mention mental health or addiction”.

“There’s no doubt about it,” Cllr Hynes concluded. “If we don’t get real and tackle the underlying issues here, we’re going to have serious problems.

"It’s not just violence on the Main Street we need to worry about, there’s domestic violence behind closed doors and a whole load of other issues caused by these drugs.”