DRUG USE is taking place in every community and sporting club in Clare.
Ireland has the fourth highest use of cocaine in the world. This statistic according to John Conroy, joint chairperson of the Clare GAA Health and Wellbeing committee “is startling and frightening”.
They have collaborated with An Garda Sïochána, Bushy Park and Samaritans to raise awareness of drug misuse, gambling and mental health in GAA clubs.
New Quay native Conroy outlined, “some clubs are very honest, they will admit they have a problem, other clubs may not realise the extent of what is there, it is in every club and every community, the more people open up and admit it is there then the clubs will get help a lot better and they will help their members and players a lot more, there is no point in hiding this, it is there”.
John explained, “A lot of families may not realise their son or daughter is using drugs, they end up getting into a debt, the family doesn’t realise it and these gangs call to the door for money, they demand X amount and the families know nothing, they could hand over €5,000 or €10,000. The Gardaí have a programme where they provide back-up support and help to the family in that case”.
Cocaine use has gone to unprecedented levels. “There is a lot of shock and surprise from the members as regards how problematic the cocaine use, how widespread and diverse it is among the age-groups, one thing we had difficulty with at the beginning was getting people in their twenties and thirties to attend, that was a difficulty. We’ve had a really good buy-in from the clubs but the big thing is how damaging it is to society”.
On its prevalence in GAA clubs, John commented, “Getting feedback from the clubs from club coaches and managers who are honest, they say it is a big problem, the other issue is gambling, the two of those are quite high, this is where the Samaritans come in, they provide help and advice on the mental health side of it, suicide is another issue, a lot of the time suicide can be linked to gambling and cocaine use, especially debt and cocaine, people suddenly get into it and they can’t pay back what they owe, they can’t see any way out, the same with gambling”.
“It is all countywide, there’s no particular area where there is a problem with this, we’ve gone from West Clare to East Clare to North Clare and South Clare, it is the same issue cropping up, there’s no one particular area, it doesn’t make any difference whether it is rural or urban, it is the exact same feedback we’re getting”.
On usage, there’s no repeated events that lead to increased drug use. “The whole essence of what we’re trying to do, we all know there is a problem there, clubs know it and we know it, we’re providing help. Just because someone is using or taking drugs doesn’t make them a bad person, it is just part of society, that is why we linked in with the organisations because they have the expertise and they will be able to provide help to people. We’re basically a sign-posting service for these organisations, once we link in with the clubs we can tell them we’re here to provide help and there has been very good feedback from the clubs on the nights we went out on people accessing the services that we had on the evening”.
On the potential signs to tell when a team member may be using drugs, he said, “That would be one of the things where Bushy Park come in, they are able to show the signs and symptoms or to refer to someone’s mood if their form is off, a lot of it would be that a manager, coach or player can say to a player ‘is everything okay’, if there is a good trust between a manager and player then the manager can sit down with the player and ask if they need help, they know now where to get help whereas before they didn’t and they were afraid to ask. A lot of the time, someone involved in the club may fear they could get a player into trouble and the Gardaí might come in but the Gardaí don’t want to put people in jail, they want to help, they are actually trying to keep people out of jail which is why they are tackling the drug intimidation programme”.
“It is going from all age-groups which is the feedback from Bushy Park Treatment Centre, it is going from the age of eighteen to sixty five or seventy, the most common usage is from the twenties and thirties, that is the age-group which least come into us which answers that”.
