Coroner’s stark warning after heroin deaths

The scale of the heroin problem on the streets of Galway has been highlighted by the death of two drug users in the city.

Now, the Coroner for West Galway has warned of the life-threatening dangers that heroin poses, particularly with the surge in its use around the city.

Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin expressed his serious concern at a rise in the number of people taking heroin, following two back-to-back inquiries Galway Courthouse into deaths related to the drug.

One man was found dead in a tent on open ground near Ceannt Station and the other in a toilet in NUIG. Both apparently overdosed, though the inquests were unable to come to that conclusion.

Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin was prompted to issue the warning after hearing details of how one, a homeless man, had stopped breathing after mixing alcohol and the drug.

“One thing that is coming through today is that the use of heroin in Galway is on the increase… it is sad to see it coming into the West of Ireland, and having a fatal effect,” he said.

“Heroin is addictive, and your tolerance increases all the time. So to get the same high, you would need to increase it. Eventually if you continue like that, you will overdose to get the same toxic effect.

“It is incumbent on all of us, particularly in schools and among young people in contact with the drug, or those encouraged to take it once – (to inform them) it is highly addictive, and by hell or high water they will do anything to get it, including committing crimes.”

Last year, Galway’s top Garda compared the rise in heroin use in the city to the strong hold which the drug took in Dublin in the 1980s.

Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Curley revealed up to 300 people in Galway city use heroin.

It was also revealed that a Lithuanian drugs gang were the main suppliers of the drug in the city.

Judge Mary Fahy warned at the time: “I think we have a potential problem in this city already without people coming in with more.”

For coverage of the inquests, see this week’s Galway City Tribune