{"id":3969,"date":"2019-10-29T11:13:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T11:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2019-10-29T11:13:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T11:13:31","slug":"crowe-highlights-problem-of-child-drug-couriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/crowe-highlights-problem-of-child-drug-couriers\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowe highlights problem of child drug couriers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Crowe highlights problem of child drug couriers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dublin South West TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has called for new\nlegislation and a different response from the government to the growing problem\nof children being used as drug couriers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sinn F\u00e9in TD raised the issue in the D\u00e1il and quoted\nfrom a report released by the Blanchardstown&nbsp;Local Drug and Alcohol Task\nForce that highlighted children were being used to deal drugs. The average\nreported age of drug dealers in the area is 13 years old, with the youngest\njust 8 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cThe report by the Blanchardstown\u00a0Local Drug and Alcohol Task Force that highlighted that children were dealing drugs there has brought a dose of reality to the challenges facing many communities, including my\u00a0own constituency of Dublin South West. The report found that the average age of drug dealers in the area was 13 years old, with the youngest just 8 years old.<\/p><p>\u201cWe know that drug intimidation is widespread. Many young people caught with large amounts of drugs then have the debt follow them or their families after they are convicted. Young people are also used to collect these debts and other children of the family involved again being threatened.<\/p><p>\u201cIllicit drugs are widely available and sold openly with cocaine and crack cocaine, heroin, and prescription drugs leading the demand. <\/p><p>\u201cThe nature of drug dealing has also changed in recent times. The Blanchardstown report calls for additional sentencing for drug barons that use children to deliver or sell their drugs and I support this call. The government and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na also need to make areas where young people socialise and go to school drug free zones.<\/p><p>\u201cI want to welcome the Blanchardstown Local Drug and Alcohol Task Force report as it brings greater clarity to the challenge of drug dealing. It puts additional responsibilities on the government to act and also on all of us as legislators to respond to the emerging needs in communities.<\/p><p>\u201cIllicit drugs are being sold openly by children as young as 8 years old who are caught up in criminality and face a bleak future. We need to respond to this latest challenge collectively and urgently.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crowe highlights problem of child drug couriers Dublin South West TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has called for new legislation and a different response from the government to the growing problem of children being used as drug couriers. The Sinn F\u00e9in TD raised the issue in the D\u00e1il and quoted from a report released by the Blanchardstown&nbsp;Local [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drug-task-force","category-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3970,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions\/3970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}