Lethal ecstasy tablets found way onto Cavan streets
Seamus Enright
Toxic ecstasy tablets linked to deaths in the North have reportedly been found for sale on streets in Cavan, where ‘everything’ is available.
Vibrant green in colour and marked with what has been described as a crown or castle logo, it has lead to the pills being named ‘Green Rolexes’ or ‘Green Castles’. Forensic analysis have though revealed the tablets contained the highly-toxic chemicals PMA and PMMA, as well as ecstasy.
The deadly drug has been linked to the deaths of seven people in Belfast and one in Co Antrim. All were aged in their 20s and 30s. The deaths prompted an all-island wide health warning. PMA is a high-strength form of ecstasy that causes heart attacks when mixed with other drugs or alcohol. PMMA is a powerful psychedelic stimulant.
Tim Murphy of community addiction services group Cavan Drug Awareness (CDA) told The Anglo-Celt that the drug was not immediately available locally due to the stark health warning issued. However, according to reports from clients, the poisonous pills did eventually find their way onto the streets of Cavan.
“It was probably delayed, the speed in which they travelled,” said Mr Murphy. “This was probably about a month after the deaths in the North and the warning first went out. About a month after that, ‘Green Castle’, as they became known, was found being sold to people around here in Cavan. That’s what our contacts were telling us.”
Mr Murphy said that, despite the best efforts by gardaí to tackle the problem, that every single drug is accessible for users here in Cavan.
“That is what we’ve found, everything can be got,” he said.
“One thing we have found, speaking to users, though, is the quality of the heroin being sold around here is in fact very poor compared to Dublin.
“That’s probably because of the number of links in the supply chain it has to go through before it gets here. That changes things from a risk point of view - the other drugs the heroin is cut with to bulk it up with increases, and these can cause their own problems as well.”
“The other [risk] is that users will try to use more to get to a place they want to, and might then end up overdosing.”