Time for Civic Leaders to Act

Billy Mitchell

The recent seizure of heroin and cocaine in North Belfast has once again highlighted the fact that Belfast has a significant drug problem and that it is not restricted to so-called �soft� recreational drugs � whatever they might be.

The very terminology� �recreational drug� angers me. When someone dies as a result of taking ecstasy are we supposed to dismiss that death as a �soft� recreational death instead of something more harder and devastating. Death is death and drugs are drugs � full stop. There is nothing soft about any of them.

During the same week that substantial seizures of hard drugs were made in North Belfast a large number of used hypodermic needles and other materials generally associated with the drugs trade were found discarded in the Shankill area. The find indicates the utter contempt and disregard that the users have for the health and safety of local children. But then why should we expect those who have no respect for their own health and well-being have any respect for the health of little children?

As the market for drugs expands in North and West Belfast so too does the number of �retail outlets� and� people employed in the �trade�. An expanding market requires new customers and that means enticing more and more of our young people into believing that they need drugs to enjoy themselves. Our children and young people are the primary targets for those who wish to expand their market and increase their profits.

This is a community problem that must be addressed by the whole community and one must ask what our civic leaders and community opinion formers are going to do about it. The clergy, elected representatives, educationalists, journalists and career community workers have the social power and the resources to mobilise whole sections of their community for a strategic campaign to isolate the dealers and close down their �retail outlets�.

Rather than spending time scapegoating the paramilitaries and marginalizing loyalist community and political activists, many of whom are trying to do something about the problem,� they ought to be up front naming and shaming those who are behind this evil trade in human misery. If they have the information that they claim to have � and they are often quick to point the finger - they have a duty and a responsibility to do something about it. In short, they have an obligation to society to put up or shut up.

It is not enough to merely condemn the drugs trade. Saying that something is wrong and evil does not make that thing disappear. Condemnation without effective remedial action is a cowardly cop out, it is the same as saying that you don�t like something but are not prepared to do anything about it. Surely the time has come for our civic leaders to stand up and be counted and to put principles into practice.

Loyalist community and political activists and even members of paramilitary organisations have at times tried to do something about it.� Sadly their efforts have been ridiculed and dismissed by both the media and by our civic leaders. When people who are perceived to have links with a paramilitary group or a loyalist party try to address the drugs issue they are accused of either �covering their backs� or trying to control the trade.

Loyalist anti-drugs activists are in a no win situation. If� they say nothing they are accused of covering up for the paramilitaries. If they were to call for a picket of �marketing outlets� used by heroin �retailers� they would be accused of threatening violence and would probably be arrested for causing a disturbance. The �great and the good� within civic society would be the first to condemn them. Meanwhile the traffickers in human misery enjoy a win-win situation.

If loyalist political and community activists are carrying too much baggage to lead the campaign against the drugs trade, then it is time for others to step forward and take on the task. Let those who see themselves as the �respectable� moral guardians of society stand up and be counted. They know as well as the rest of us who the barons are and where their outlets are located. Let them mobilise their congregations, constituents and their resources to help isolate the dealers close down their outlets.

During the recent Shankill crisis these civic leaders found time to mobilise people for prayer meetings, press conferences and a peace march. There is nothing wrong with any of these activities, but to be effective they must target the source of the problem. A march of concerned citizens to picket the drug dens would be more effective than a publicity march that ends in empty rhetoric. Holding press conferences and prayer meetings outside the door of a drug outlet, particularly at �trading time�, would be more effective than holding them in the comfort of a newsroom or a church building where no one is inconvenienced.

If the people don�t want their children to be poisoned and fleeced by drug dealers then our civic leaders must show some leadership and mobilise them to rid their communities of the trade. The question is, �Have they got the bottle for it�?