Drugs on the Doorstep Spotlight


Drugs on the Doorstep

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'A suburban street in Bangor, and while families around me

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'are returning home from work and school, I'm waiting to buy drugs,

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'powerful pills that should only be prescribed by a doctor.'

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Show me, what have you got?

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And you are giving me this stuff.

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This is the same stuff as the last time, isn't it?

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And this is the prescription drugs?

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And this is the stuff that definitely is diazepam?

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Now is a good time to tell you, I'm Jennifer O'Leary,

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a reporter for BBC Spotlight.

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# Body to body

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# Funky to funky

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# We know how to... #

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David Lyle is the man behind Northern Ireland's

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hard-hitting road-safety ads.

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His campaigns are credited with saving young people's lives.

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But it was a different danger on Northern Ireland's streets

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that cost the life of his only son, Matthew.

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A musician and a recovering heroin addict,

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he died in 2005 aged 28 after taking a combination of painkillers

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and diazepam bought illegally.

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People are playing a dangerous game

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when they use these prescription drugs.

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I liken it to playing Russian roulette.

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It's almost like you take a revolver, put in a combination of pills

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and you put the revolver to your head,

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you click the trigger and hope that you're going to survive.

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But quite often that combination of drugs is going to kill you.

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These drugs effectively sedated him to death.

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When we found him, we found him in his bedroom

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at the top of the house with his head slumped on the floor.

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You know? He was just literally slumped over.

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His head was down on the floor.

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So, it just proved fatal. And tragic.

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Can you describe the shock?

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Even now, the shock is...intolerable.

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And this many years later...

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..it never leaves you.

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Thousands of people in Northern Ireland

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have taken these pills tonight.

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They are diazepam,

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a type of benzodiazepine commonly known as benzos.

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They are useful for treating acute anxiety

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and are widely prescribed for that purpose.

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But they have another side.

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More people die in Northern Ireland with benzodiazepines

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in their bloodstream than all of the so-called hard drugs combined.

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More than a third of drug-related deaths,

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that's accidental overdoses and suicides, feature diazepam.

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The numbers are increasing.

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Diazepam effectively is a depressant of the brain.

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If it's combined with other depressants like alcohol

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or like some other drugs,

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you simply depress the brain function

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so much that the person stops breathing.

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They lapse into a coma, they stop breathing and they die.

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I don't think people appreciate how significant these risks are.

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I suppose because diazepam itself

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has been marketed as a very safe drug,

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and it is when taken on its own.

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It's when it's taken in combination with other substances

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that there is real danger.

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I don't envisage that the deaths that we are seeing

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are going to suddenly stop.

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Last September, customs and health authorities

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in 81 countries spent a week targeting postal routes

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to intercept internet drug parcels.

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Some internet sales are entirely legitimate,

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but in that one week UK agencies

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found 150 packages of illicit pills including diazepam

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destined for Northern Ireland.

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I think there is an increasing awareness of a growing trade

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in the illicit use of prescription drugs.

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I am certainly concerned by what is evidence

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of an increasing market in both drugs,

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unlicensed drugs which people are purchasing over the internet,

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hence unregulated with no assurance around their safety or efficacy,

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and also the availability of counterfeit drugs

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which we just don't know what they contain.

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I am investigating how sales on the internet are influencing

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the diazepam market here.

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It's not just used to import the drug from abroad,

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local dealers are using the web and that makes the drug

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even more available on the streets today

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than at the time Matthew Lyle died.

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In my own experience with Matthew,

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no young person is safe from dealers.

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From pushing, from seeking to interrupt people's lives

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and draw them into the pattern.

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I've set out to track down today's prescription dealers.

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I found a web forum that is essentially a notice board

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for a range of illegal drugs

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offered for sale right here in Northern Ireland,

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including diazepam, also known as blues or yellows

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according to the colour of the pill indicating different strengths.

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Buying requires very little effort on my part.

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I make contact with a dealer called Mick 2012

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who has diazepam for sale.

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Then it's just a matter of waiting for a phone call.

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I clearly couldn't meet the dealer at work.

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I'm going undercover so I think I'll play up my accent

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and for his part,

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well, the dealer has promised to deliver drugs to my door.

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'Mick 2012 arrives as planned.

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'We've obscured his identity as we believe he's underage.'

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And that's all it took. Illegal drugs brought to my door

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after a little time on the internet.

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They certainly talk a good talk online, but it's not just talk

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because here I am, 100 benzos later.

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I chose from the menu, all I needed was a phone

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and an address for a drop-off,

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the same thing if you were to order a pizza,

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but in this case, of course, I was ordering pills.

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Our weakness for diazepam goes back decades.

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Benzos under the brand name Valium first came to Northern Ireland

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in the late 1960s.

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It soon became the perfect pill for treating shattered nerves.

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Prescription pads were used as widely as the bombs and bullets.

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The contents of a pill bottle served as

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a form of chemical therapy for the Troubles.

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The world kept turning, but Northern Ireland's attachment

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to what's now called diazepam remains unchanged.

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We have a consistently high number of benzo prescriptions here,

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more than double the rest of the UK and the Republic,

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with parts of Belfast at four times the rate.

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It's most heavily used as a prescription drug in deprived areas.

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Gabriel Cush's day revolves around diazepam.

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Current medical guidelines say patients should take diazepam

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no longer than four to six weeks.

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Gabriel has been taking it daily for 30 years.

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'Prescribed the drug

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'back when it was considered safe for long-term use,

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'he is now too dependent to be taken off it.'

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Five or ten minutes, then they kick in.

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-What happens?

-It relaxes you.

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Earlier on I started to get a bit of jitteriness.

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I need them. Every day.

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It's terrible to have a life like that, your life's ruined.

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'According to some studies, Gabriel's long-term use

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'puts him at greater risk of cancer and dementia.

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'Even though his diazepam dosage has been reduced in recent years,

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'he says he can't quit.'

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When you wake up in the morning, what's your first thought?

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Straight to the tablets.

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First thing a cup of coffee,

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and tablets into me, and a smoke.

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-And the last thing at night?

-Diazepam again.

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To help me to get through the night.

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I feel sorry I had started them

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and I wish I had've knew more about them, what I know now.

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But I can't do nothing about it, because I'm hooked on them now.

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Gabriel sticks to his dosage prescribed by his GP,

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but others choose to top up with black-market pills.

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I have conversations often about people

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being able to readily purchase blues and yellows on any street corner.

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On any day of the week.

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You're telling me if I came in here

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and asked you for a script for diazepam

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and you said no, I could head down to the corner and get some?

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Well, I wouldn't suggest that, but certainly that's available.

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I have been put in the position where people say,

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"If you don't give them to me, I'll buy them.

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"And I would rather get them from you

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"because I don't know what is in the bag

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"that I'm going to get from down the corner."

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But that's very much, well, that's your choice.

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I'm quickly learning there is no shortage

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of black-market benzos in Belfast.

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I handed over cash for 100 pills in that first transaction

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and now I have got another offer from another dealer, Liam.

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Home delivery is also his calling card.

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As PSNI officers marshal crowds who have come to see

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the Olympic flame arriving in Belfast,

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Liam turns up with my pills.

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'In fact, while we're making the exchange PSNI officers pass by.

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'The possibility of being arrested for dealing drugs

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'is not what Liam is concerned about,

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'he's more worried about getting a parking ticket.'

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That's two deliveries in as many days.

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So, this is my second home delivery.

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The packaging isn't as professional, if you like, as the first one.

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But the principle is the same.

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100 benzos delivered right to my door.

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These pills aren't like others sold in the UK.

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Many black-market prescription drugs come from overseas.

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Both batches I've bought appear to have been made in Sri Lanka.

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There are a number of medications

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which are coming in from a variety of sources.

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Through the internet.

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Many of these are produced on the subcontinent.

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Unfortunately once you start manufacturing

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without the standards that are required by law,

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then different fillers are used,

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different tableting processes.

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All sorts of binders, all sorts of things added in,

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and that is the difference. You have no idea what you're getting,

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because it is not a licensed product.

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I can't be sure what I've bought is the real thing,

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so I'm sending some of my pills to Dublin for professional testing.

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I need to know if they're genuine diazepam and not duds.

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Biochemist Dr Jack Bloomfield is experienced in testing

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and analysing all kinds of drug compounds.

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It doesn't take long for him to identify my pills.

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It's telling us that it is diazepam.

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It is diazepam, and it's 99% sure it's diazepam.

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-That's pretty sure.

-That's pretty sure.

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Our analysis is very clear.

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These little blue tablets, that they don't have a number on them

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to say that they're ten milligrams

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or five milligrams or whatever.

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But I believe that these are ten-milligram diazepams.

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These pills are all properly manufactured medical doses of diazepam.

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Well, now I know for sure that what was delivered to my door

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are, in fact, diazepam.

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Just under ten milligrams of the active ingredient in each one of those small, little blue pills.

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But bear in mind that to normally buy diazepam in any circumstances,

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you need to go to your GP where you're given a script,

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and you go to a pharmacist where it's dispensed to you.

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I'm getting a class C, what is a controlled drug,

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delivered to my door in as much of the quantity as I can afford to buy.

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Last year, 36 people died in Northern Ireland

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from misuse of benzos.

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Deaths have been increasing over the last decade,

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and that's a concern for those who are living with the grief.

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It's been seven years since you buried Matthew.

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Do you think the problem has got worse?

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I think it's getting worse.

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My question is whether the criminal justice system is in any sense

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alert to the real dangers here.

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In fact, I think the criminal justice system has completely abandoned people

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to the vicious exploitation of these dealers,

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that the criminal justice system is not protecting the young

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and the innocent and the vulnerable from the viciousness of dealers.

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So who is responsible for stopping diazepam from reaching the streets,

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particularly when it's clearly come from outside Northern Ireland?

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Finding out proved more challenging than buying benzos.

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I first contacted the Border Force,

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which is responsible for securing the UK's borders.

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They told me that here, the Department Of Health is the lead agency,

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so I did as advised and contacted the Department Of Health,

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who then said the Border Agency are primarily responsible

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for security of UK borders,

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including vigilance against the importation of prohibited substances.

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The Border Agency chose not to be interviewed,

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but accepted they could seize goods.

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There are a number of agencies involved,

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the PSNI, the Department Of Health, the Border Agency,

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but there's always a chain of command.

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WHO is in charge?

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The Border Agency are ultimately in charge

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of what is coming in over the UK border.

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We will take the lead from the UK Border Agency

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in terms of the investigation and prosecution of offences

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that we've identified.

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-But they have to pass the case on to you?

-Yes.

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I've seen for myself that dealers are selling imported drugs

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unlicensed for here, so where is the weak link?

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Given what they're doing and what we observed,

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on the face of it, it does seem pretty easy to sell and to buy.

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They may feel as if they're immune to the law,

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but I can assure the public that the PSNI are rigorously investigating

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people involved in the importation of controlled drugs,

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and the situation is that importing, selling or supplying

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any form of drugs, class C, diazepam in particular,

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carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.

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I spoke to an addict from Belfast's Shankill Road.

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We agreed to disguise his identity,

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because, he says, he's under threat from loyalist paramilitaries.

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But he's not afraid of police.

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Sure, there's nothing they can do.

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I mean, certain things, sometimes they take them off you

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and things like that, but...

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in all honesty, peelers are wasting their time.

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A peeler wouldn't even worry about taking a couple of yellows or blues off you.

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Because everybody takes blues. And everybody takes yellows. Everybody.

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-How many do you take?

-Two or three in the morning.

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-With a glass of water?

-A glass of juice or something, aye.

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A few joints, maybe something to eat.

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Later on in the afternoon, maybe another couple of tablets.

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And after that, just take whatever you're taking for the night.

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-Like what?

-Maybe ten. Just sit there all night.

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-In one go or...?

-Aye. I'll maybe just split them up.

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I'd take three and then a cup of tea.

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You get a better hit with a joint and a cup of tea. Kick in quicker.

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They hit you, know what I mean?

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When you crunch the tablets, they dissolve quicker inside you,

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so they start affecting you quicker.

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How do you know it's starting to kick in? Describe it for me.

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Just feel like you're... HE EXHALES SHARPLY

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When you go to sit forward, it feels like somebody pulling your head back.

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Your shoulders...

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When you go to lift off a seat and stand up, you're like... HE EXHALES CONTENTEDLY

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-To the side.

-Do you like that feeling?

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You're mellowed out, know what I mean? You've no worries.

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All the bad things that you worry about just seem to be away.

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You're just sort of blanking everything out.

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That's what you're using it for.

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'But that sensation comes at a cost.'

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What we know is that if someone buys diazepam over the internet,

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what we tend to find is that when they're bought,

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people don't tend to take them in ones and twos.

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They'll take them in tens and twenties.

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And the effects then, psychologically and physically, can be quite profound.

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I mean, we are talking about fairly significant dosages.

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They'll describe then that as time goes on, that they'll continue

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to drink and use drugs,

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that they usually will find

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that there are gaps then in their memory, that they can't remember

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the later part of the evening, earlier part of the morning.

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Some people will say to you, "The next thing

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"I remember is finding myself in a cell or in a casualty department."

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And the bit in-between will be extremely vague.

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I definitely believe that normal diazepam prescribed off a doctor

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and the illegal ones, there's a different reaction with them the next day.

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You always seem to wake up in a bad mood. When you get up,

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you're still feeling the effects from the night before.

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You'd think you hadn't been asleep. You're, like, all over the show.

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You're walking all disorientated and, like, dead snappy and dead angry.

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While I've been learning about the effects of diazepam,

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I'm still getting messages from internet dealers.

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Now, the latest one says he can't deliver,

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so he's asked me to go to him.

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He's offering me pills in a blister pack.

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They're more prized,

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because most users think they're less likely to be fake.

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-What?

-Come back here cos I don't, like, I don't know that area,

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you know what I mean?

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'This dealer calls himself Stephen. He clearly knows what he's doing is illegal.

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'Not only is he concerned about being seen,

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'he also thinks he's being careful about leaving evidence.'

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Yeah, well, look...

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'One sale over, Stephen is keen to set me up for other purchases.

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'He'd like my diazepam purchase to be a gateway to other drugs.'

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In just over a week, I managed to pocket 400 pills.

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At the maximum safe medical dose,

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that's enough for more than three months.

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But I could have at least doubled that number,

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because each dealer I bought from was ready to sell me more

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within a matter of days.

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I've established how easy it is to buy benzos.

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What I want to know now is how the pills got to Northern Ireland.

0:23:380:23:42

-How're you doing?

-Not bad, you?

-Good, good, how are you keeping?

0:23:450:23:49

-Good.

-Yeah.

0:23:500:23:51

Have you been busy?

0:23:520:23:55

Business is good?

0:23:550:23:56

So show me what you've got.

0:23:580:23:59

Hang on now. I'll just count this out.

0:24:030:24:05

This is the 20, 30, the 40.

0:24:050:24:09

I didn't take the fiver this time, and you're giving me this stuff.

0:24:090:24:13

-This is the same stuff as the last time, isn't it? And this is the prescription drugs?

-Yes.

0:24:130:24:17

And this is the stuff that definitely is diazepam.

0:24:170:24:21

Now is a good time to tell you, I'm Jennifer O'Leary.

0:24:210:24:23

I'm a reporter for BBC Spotlight. I just wanted to find out from you,

0:24:230:24:27

from where are you getting these drugs?

0:24:270:24:29

-You know that this is illegal?

-Right...

0:24:290:24:31

This prescription drug...

0:24:310:24:34

See if you don't get the camera out of my face, there'll be...

0:24:340:24:36

There's no licence to sell this in the UK. Can you tell me from where you're getting drugs from?

0:24:360:24:40

I can indeed, yeah.

0:24:400:24:42

You know it's an offence to sell or supply what are class C drugs

0:24:420:24:45

to people, you're aware of that, aren't you?

0:24:450:24:48

-HE LAUGHS

-You find this funny, selling drugs?

0:24:480:24:51

-You know this is illegal activity?

-I do indeed.

0:24:510:24:54

Are you worried about the PSNI at any stage?

0:24:540:24:56

Well, it sure is easy to sell prescription drugs

0:25:000:25:03

like this on the streets, but, as we clearly have seen there,

0:25:030:25:06

he doesn't want to answer any hard questions.

0:25:060:25:09

I want to find out what Liam had to say about selling me

0:25:120:25:15

100 black-market pills.

0:25:150:25:18

I arranged to meet him again.

0:25:180:25:20

-I'm Jennifer O'Leary, I'm a reporter for BBC Spotlight.

-Oh, great(!)

0:25:200:25:23

-This is what you sold me.

-(BLEEP)

-Just to confirm that these are illicit drugs

0:25:230:25:26

and you're doing it illegally. You're not going to answer any questions?

0:25:260:25:30

You know it's illegal to sell these?

0:25:300:25:33

Well, again, just to prove that these are illicit drugs,

0:25:350:25:38

we have tested these in the laboratory.

0:25:380:25:41

They are in fact diazepam. It's illegal to sell class C drugs.

0:25:410:25:45

He has sold them to me, but won't answer any questions.

0:25:450:25:49

No surprise there, really.

0:25:490:25:51

'Posing online again, I asked Mick 2012 to phone me.'

0:25:540:25:59

When I revealed my identity, he said his pills came from a GP.

0:25:590:26:03

But we know that's a lie.

0:26:030:26:05

The 400 pills I bought appear to have been legitimately manufactured abroad.

0:26:050:26:11

Not even one is licensed for sale in the UK.

0:26:110:26:15

We traced Stephen's blister packs to a reputable factory

0:26:150:26:18

in Benin, in West Africa.

0:26:180:26:20

The manufacturer told us they came from a batch of nearly ten million pills processed four years ago,

0:26:200:26:26

and sold to the governments of Burkina Faso and Cameroon.

0:26:260:26:30

Licensed only in Africa,

0:26:300:26:32

but somehow ending up for sale on the streets of Northern Ireland.

0:26:320:26:36

'I'm on my way to safely dispose of all the drugs I've bought.'

0:26:360:26:41

No-one knows the true scale of diazepam dependence

0:26:450:26:49

in Northern Ireland.

0:26:490:26:50

Nor does anyone know just how many of these drugs are being imported.

0:26:500:26:55

'The PSNI doesn't even publish figures for the amount of class C drugs it seizes.

0:27:000:27:06

'A conviction for selling diazepam illegally

0:27:060:27:09

'carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years,

0:27:090:27:13

'and a potentially unlimited fine.

0:27:130:27:15

'But on the face of it, the penalties for importing

0:27:160:27:20

'and selling pills don't cause dealers to lose any sleep.'

0:27:200:27:24

A dealer convicted of attempting to sell prescription drugs

0:27:250:27:28

to Matthew Lyle just before he died was already on a suspended sentence

0:27:280:27:33

when he came to court. He was given another suspended sentence.

0:27:330:27:38

The judge said that because the amount of drugs was so small,

0:27:400:27:46

that that had to be mitigation.

0:27:460:27:50

But hold on a second, we now know that even the tiniest amounts

0:27:500:27:54

of drugs, taken in combination, can be fatal.

0:27:540:27:57

So what's the small quantity got to do with anything?

0:27:570:28:00

So the dangers here are dangers for everybody. For all of society.

0:28:040:28:10

There isn't a family that is not potentially vulnerable here.

0:28:100:28:13

Gabriel Cush accepts that he will be taking diazepam

0:28:130:28:17

for the rest of his life.

0:28:170:28:19

Plagued by long-term diazepam dependence,

0:28:190:28:22

he is looking at a different generation misusing powerful prescription pills.

0:28:220:28:27

For young lads to do that, I think it's sad.

0:28:290:28:32

They don't know what they're messing with.

0:28:320:28:34

And I just wish to God they would go off it,

0:28:350:28:38

and to see the other dangers, there's other dangers in the future.

0:28:380:28:42

They should be looking forward.

0:28:420:28:44

Instead of doubling down another tablet...

0:28:450:28:48

for the next fix.

0:28:480:28:49

They may have started life as medicine,

0:28:490:28:51

but these little pills can bring death and misery.

0:28:510:28:54

Their overuse in Northern Ireland has long been a tragic legacy

0:28:540:28:58

of history.

0:28:580:28:59

But sold on the internet and pushed on young people,

0:28:590:29:03

they are today a growing threat to the next generation,

0:29:030:29:06

carry-out drugs, death brought to the door.

0:29:060:29:09

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