At the Belfast Summit a few months ago, a senior police officer in charge of the city centre made a striking admission: only 20% of what they deal with is actually crime. The remaining 80% of their workload is the fallout of addiction. Understandably, the police are not that keen on their unofficial role of social workers with guns.
Parts of the city centre have become incredibly grim, especially since Covid. It is deeply depressing to witness the scale of begging, rough sleeping, and acute mental distress. I remember a particularly jarring juxtaposition recently. I had brought a friend to the top floor of the Grand Hotel for their fine, sweeping view over the city. As we left the 5 star hotel and walked down a side street, we witnessed people injecting heroin. Just last week, during the day, I saw people sniffing drugs on Royal Avenue. This is a dark situation for everyone, least of all the addicts, but it becomes even more disturbing when you hear reports of people being accosted for money or even assaulted.
This particular case was reported by the Belfast Telegraph a few weeks ago:
A 15-year-old girl was allegedly taken to the boiler room of an underground car park in Belfast city centre to be raped, a court heard today.
Police claimed Jamie Donald, 28, carried out a “predatory” sexual assault at the Victoria Square facilities on Saturday night.
Donald, of no fixed abode, insists all contact with the girl he believed to be older was fully consensual.
He was refused bail on a disputed charge of rape and remanded in custody until later this month.
Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard a witness reported seeing a young female being dragged by a man through the Cornmarket area in a distressed state at around 9.30pm on Saturday.
The girl later informed officers the defendant had approached and tried to kiss her while she was with friends outside a cafe near City Hall.
Now, obviously we can’t comment on an ongoing court case, but that’s another example of some of the disturbing goings-on in the city centre. I should point out that addiction is an issue all across Northern Ireland, but due to its population size, it’s most visible in Belfast.
In today’s Belfast Telegraph, local councillor Paul McCusker talks about the problems coming from ever more deadly drugs, from the article:
A worsening drugs crisis in Belfast means “zombie-like” behaviour is becoming widespread in the city centre, a councillor has warned. Independent councillor Paul McCusker, founder of People’s Kitchen Belfast on the Antrim Road, said he witnessed several incidents over the weekend, including a young man suffering cocaine-induced psychosis. North Belfast communities have reported discarded needles in Marrowbone Millennium Park and elsewhere.
Mr McCusker said it’s amid the increased use of Spice, the street name for a Class B synthetic drug mimicking cannabis effect but often far more potent, which can be smoked, vaped or ingested via devices popular among young people. These lab-made chemicals latch on much more aggressively to the brain’s cannabis receptors, leading to unpredictable highs.
There are worries that newer strains of the drug circulating in Belfast may be producing more aggressive symptoms in users, such as psychosis, violent seizures and collapses. Mr McCusker warned of six- to eight-week waits for initial addiction support and up to five months for rehab, leaving users repeatedly attending A&E with overdoses while waiting for treatment.
Concerns about nitazenes, a highly potent class of synthetic opioid, have also been raised amid fears they may be in circulation locally and are difficult for users to identify.
All of this is heavy and harrowing. With our history of trauma and massive mental health issues, Northern Ireland is prime ground for addiction. This is a multi-layered crisis involving the economy, with stores hit by shoplifting; tourism, as this is a poor image for visitors; and the massive strain on housing services, social services, the courts, and the health service.
It is a complicated problem that requires a joined-up solution, yet we remain trapped in a silo mentality where departments rarely talk to one another. I have enormous sympathy for those in addiction; many have endured horrific upbringings and abuse. I also have immense respect for people like Paul McCusker. I know Paul personally, and he is a walking saint, but it is not fair that society expects these individuals to shoulder this weight while government departments shrug their shoulders and leave the mess for others to sort out. We call ourselves a post-conflict society, but while we no longer shoot and bomb each other, there is a shadow troubles that still casts a long shadow of death and misery on our society.
Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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