Violence and sexual abuse – misery of drug debt hits users and families across country.
Six years ago, a report from the Family Support Network made for chilling reading, with tales of indebted drug addicts being beaten, forced to drink dangerous chemicals or sexually threatened by the dealers who came looking for debts to be settled.
One person owed €60,000. A few were chased for as little as €100.
“The issues are the same, the way that people are being intimidated is the same. The only thing that has changed since we published that report is that there is much more of it – it used to be mainly in Dublin but now it has spread right across the country,” the network’s Sadie Grace said.
The message given to the addict forced to drink chemicals was simple, Grace said: “You won’t talk again. The drug user was warned that when he came out of hospital, they would get him and if he didn’t come home, then they would get his family.”
Source: Barry Roche, The Irish Times,17/02/16
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