Milltown GAA Healthy Club Substance Abuse Workshop

Young people are turning to drink and drugs to relieve pressure and intensified sports training is adding to that pressure. Peer pressure, growing up in a drinking culture and drugs being readily available, combine to make substance abuse a real threat.

Those were some of the messages relayed at a Substance Abuse Workshop held in Milltown Community Centre last Tuesday evening, organised by Paul Heduan as part of Milltown GAA’s Healthy Club initiatives.

The workshop heard that alcohol is a factor in one in four deaths among young men. New trends include putting cannabis oil in vapes and mixing cocaine and ketamine, a horse tranquilliser, in a ‘Calvin Klein’ cocktail to induce a zombie like state. You can order your drugs from your bar stool or have them delivered by taxi to your home, the meeting heard; drugs are everywhere and young people are turning to them to relieve pressure and to stay awake.

Tom Conlon, GAA safeguarding tutor and ladies football trainer, said he had his first training session at the age of 14, with Albert Fallon from Rochfortbridge, when he went to Mercy Secondary School, Ballymahon. Training in Tang NS involved asking the master for the ball. Nowadays, children are being introduced to training from the age of three or four. The average senior club team are doing the same level of training as the Kerry seniors did in 1979 when they won the All-Ireland.

Tom told the meeting about one young person he spoke to recently who had togged out six times that day, playing hurling and football for club and school. A trainer might decide to have an extra training session during the week, mindless of the fact that players have to travel long journeys home from college to attend, in addition to trying to keep up with their studies and get assignments in. They are taking substances to stay awake. Young people must be advised that it is no harm to say no, he said.

He spoke of the pressure on young people on college scholarships who have to sign a contract to play, but also have to pass their exams. If they are good enough to get a scholarship, they will also be playing for club and county.

Player welfare needs to be a priority to avoid burn-out and to allow them to grow and develop, Tom continued. Clubs need to find a balance between competitiveness and player welfare.

He went on to say that you would not invite 20 children to your child’s birthday party, let them play for a bit and then tell some of them they have to leave, but that is what is happening at football and hurling try-outs. We have the power to make these children grow and flourish, but we also have the power to diminish them, he warned.

Off season binge-drinking

Figures presented by Martina Dunne of the Midlands Drugs and Alcohol Task Force showed that 88 per cent of senior players binge-drink off season. Alcohol is a factor in one in four deaths in young men. Ireland ranks sixth in the world for alcohol use and is “way above” the EU average for ecstasy and cocaine and not far behind for cannabis.

Ms Dunne said that putting cannabis oil into vapes is “hitting the ground big time”.

Garda Camilla Corbett of Mullingar Community Policing said that availability of cannabis jellies is also increasing. She warned that users have no idea what is in such jellies or vapes. Likewise, they have no idea what is in the drugs they are buying as they have been cut multiple times, and anything from creatine to rat poison is added to bulk them out.

Garda Corbett said that a gram of cocaine costs between €80 and €100 and there is a degree of social acceptance of it as a recreational drug.

Ms Dunne said many families are being intimidated over drug debts, their windows smashed and their cars set alight. She told of DRIVE – the drugs related intimidation and violent engagement website set up to advise families on what they can do. If you pay them, they’ll keep coming back, she warned.

Garda support

Garda Corbett said that Inspector Ray Smyth of Mullingar Garda Station has been designated to deal with drug debt intimidation and all complaints will be dealt with in the strictest confidence. “You are not alone, there are services there,” she said.

Garda Corbett stressed that there is help available for families affected by drugs and the quicker it is accessed, the better chance there is of “pulling them back”. She warned parents not to stick their heads in the sand, but to seek help urgently. She has seen the devastation that drugs cause in families. One man who attended the meeting said he trains young teenagers, some of whom start vaping when they go to secondary school. Garda Corbett said she would be glad to give talks to such groups, in addition to the talks given in schools.

Paul Heduan said he found the workshop “mind blowing”, the extent of what is available and how easy it is to access drugs. Milltown Club held mental health talks for 12-16-year-olds last year. The talks were given by eight former or current inter-county players. There was great feedback from that initiative and it prompted him to organise this workshop.

Milltown GAA are also hopeful of being recognised as a Green Club this year. They have received a grant to put solar panels on the community centre. They are providing a biodiversity space at the club and are aiming to have waste segregated into recycling and composting bins.