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'A suburban street in Bangor, and while families around me | 0:00:03 | 0:00:07 | |
'are returning home from work and school, I'm waiting to buy drugs, | 0:00:07 | 0:00:11 | |
'powerful pills that should only be prescribed by a doctor.' | 0:00:11 | 0:00:17 | |
Show me, what have you got? | 0:00:17 | 0:00:18 | |
And you are giving me this stuff. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
This is the same stuff as the last time, isn't it? | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
And this is the prescription drugs? | 0:00:22 | 0:00:24 | |
And this is the stuff that definitely is diazepam? | 0:00:24 | 0:00:28 | |
Now is a good time to tell you, I'm Jennifer O'Leary, | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
a reporter for BBC Spotlight. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
# Body to body | 0:00:59 | 0:01:01 | |
# Funky to funky | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
# We know how to... # | 0:01:03 | 0:01:04 | |
David Lyle is the man behind Northern Ireland's | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
hard-hitting road-safety ads. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
His campaigns are credited with saving young people's lives. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
But it was a different danger on Northern Ireland's streets | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
that cost the life of his only son, Matthew. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
A musician and a recovering heroin addict, | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
he died in 2005 aged 28 after taking a combination of painkillers | 0:01:27 | 0:01:33 | |
and diazepam bought illegally. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
People are playing a dangerous game | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
when they use these prescription drugs. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:41 | |
I liken it to playing Russian roulette. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:43 | |
It's almost like you take a revolver, put in a combination of pills | 0:01:43 | 0:01:48 | |
and you put the revolver to your head, | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
you click the trigger and hope that you're going to survive. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
But quite often that combination of drugs is going to kill you. | 0:01:55 | 0:02:00 | |
These drugs effectively sedated him to death. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:03 | |
When we found him, we found him in his bedroom | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
at the top of the house with his head slumped on the floor. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
You know? He was just literally slumped over. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
His head was down on the floor. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
So, it just proved fatal. And tragic. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:23 | |
Can you describe the shock? | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
Even now, the shock is...intolerable. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:37 | |
And this many years later... | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
..it never leaves you. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
Thousands of people in Northern Ireland | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
have taken these pills tonight. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
They are diazepam, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:53 | |
a type of benzodiazepine commonly known as benzos. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
They are useful for treating acute anxiety | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
and are widely prescribed for that purpose. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
But they have another side. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
More people die in Northern Ireland with benzodiazepines | 0:03:06 | 0:03:10 | |
in their bloodstream than all of the so-called hard drugs combined. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
More than a third of drug-related deaths, | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
that's accidental overdoses and suicides, feature diazepam. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:22 | |
The numbers are increasing. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
Diazepam effectively is a depressant of the brain. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
If it's combined with other depressants like alcohol | 0:03:28 | 0:03:33 | |
or like some other drugs, | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
you simply depress the brain function | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
so much that the person stops breathing. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
They lapse into a coma, they stop breathing and they die. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
I don't think people appreciate how significant these risks are. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:49 | |
I suppose because diazepam itself | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
has been marketed as a very safe drug, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
and it is when taken on its own. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:57 | |
It's when it's taken in combination with other substances | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
that there is real danger. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
I don't envisage that the deaths that we are seeing | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
are going to suddenly stop. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:06 | |
Last September, customs and health authorities | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
in 81 countries spent a week targeting postal routes | 0:04:10 | 0:04:15 | |
to intercept internet drug parcels. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
Some internet sales are entirely legitimate, | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
but in that one week UK agencies | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
found 150 packages of illicit pills including diazepam | 0:04:22 | 0:04:27 | |
destined for Northern Ireland. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
I think there is an increasing awareness of a growing trade | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
in the illicit use of prescription drugs. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:39 | |
I am certainly concerned by what is evidence | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
of an increasing market in both drugs, | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
unlicensed drugs which people are purchasing over the internet, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
hence unregulated with no assurance around their safety or efficacy, | 0:04:49 | 0:04:55 | |
and also the availability of counterfeit drugs | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
which we just don't know what they contain. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
I am investigating how sales on the internet are influencing | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
the diazepam market here. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
It's not just used to import the drug from abroad, | 0:05:09 | 0:05:14 | |
local dealers are using the web and that makes the drug | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
even more available on the streets today | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
than at the time Matthew Lyle died. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
In my own experience with Matthew, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
no young person is safe from dealers. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
From pushing, from seeking to interrupt people's lives | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
and draw them into the pattern. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
I've set out to track down today's prescription dealers. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:39 | |
I found a web forum that is essentially a notice board | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
for a range of illegal drugs | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
offered for sale right here in Northern Ireland, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
including diazepam, also known as blues or yellows | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
according to the colour of the pill indicating different strengths. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
Buying requires very little effort on my part. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
I make contact with a dealer called Mick 2012 | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
who has diazepam for sale. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
Then it's just a matter of waiting for a phone call. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:12 | |
I clearly couldn't meet the dealer at work. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
I'm going undercover so I think I'll play up my accent | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
and for his part, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
well, the dealer has promised to deliver drugs to my door. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
'Mick 2012 arrives as planned. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
'We've obscured his identity as we believe he's underage.' | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
And that's all it took. Illegal drugs brought to my door | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
after a little time on the internet. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
They certainly talk a good talk online, but it's not just talk | 0:07:16 | 0:07:21 | |
because here I am, 100 benzos later. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
I chose from the menu, all I needed was a phone | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
and an address for a drop-off, | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
the same thing if you were to order a pizza, | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
but in this case, of course, I was ordering pills. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:36 | |
Our weakness for diazepam goes back decades. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
Benzos under the brand name Valium first came to Northern Ireland | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
in the late 1960s. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:48 | |
It soon became the perfect pill for treating shattered nerves. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
Prescription pads were used as widely as the bombs and bullets. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
The contents of a pill bottle served as | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
a form of chemical therapy for the Troubles. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
The world kept turning, but Northern Ireland's attachment | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
to what's now called diazepam remains unchanged. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
We have a consistently high number of benzo prescriptions here, | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
more than double the rest of the UK and the Republic, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
with parts of Belfast at four times the rate. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
It's most heavily used as a prescription drug in deprived areas. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
Gabriel Cush's day revolves around diazepam. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
Current medical guidelines say patients should take diazepam | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
no longer than four to six weeks. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
Gabriel has been taking it daily for 30 years. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
'Prescribed the drug | 0:08:57 | 0:08:58 | |
'back when it was considered safe for long-term use, | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
'he is now too dependent to be taken off it.' | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
Five or ten minutes, then they kick in. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
-What happens? -It relaxes you. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
Earlier on I started to get a bit of jitteriness. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
I need them. Every day. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
It's terrible to have a life like that, your life's ruined. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:23 | |
'According to some studies, Gabriel's long-term use | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
'puts him at greater risk of cancer and dementia. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
'Even though his diazepam dosage has been reduced in recent years, | 0:09:32 | 0:09:36 | |
'he says he can't quit.' | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
When you wake up in the morning, what's your first thought? | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
Straight to the tablets. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
First thing a cup of coffee, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
and tablets into me, and a smoke. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
-And the last thing at night? -Diazepam again. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
To help me to get through the night. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
I feel sorry I had started them | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
and I wish I had've knew more about them, what I know now. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
But I can't do nothing about it, because I'm hooked on them now. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
Gabriel sticks to his dosage prescribed by his GP, | 0:10:12 | 0:10:17 | |
but others choose to top up with black-market pills. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
I have conversations often about people | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
being able to readily purchase blues and yellows on any street corner. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:30 | |
On any day of the week. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
You're telling me if I came in here | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
and asked you for a script for diazepam | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
and you said no, I could head down to the corner and get some? | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
Well, I wouldn't suggest that, but certainly that's available. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
I have been put in the position where people say, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:50 | |
"If you don't give them to me, I'll buy them. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
"And I would rather get them from you | 0:10:53 | 0:10:54 | |
"because I don't know what is in the bag | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
"that I'm going to get from down the corner." | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
But that's very much, well, that's your choice. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
I'm quickly learning there is no shortage | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
of black-market benzos in Belfast. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
I handed over cash for 100 pills in that first transaction | 0:11:09 | 0:11:14 | |
and now I have got another offer from another dealer, Liam. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:19 | |
Home delivery is also his calling card. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
As PSNI officers marshal crowds who have come to see | 0:11:23 | 0:11:28 | |
the Olympic flame arriving in Belfast, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
Liam turns up with my pills. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:32 | |
'In fact, while we're making the exchange PSNI officers pass by. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:47 | |
'The possibility of being arrested for dealing drugs | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
'is not what Liam is concerned about, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:52 | |
'he's more worried about getting a parking ticket.' | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
That's two deliveries in as many days. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
So, this is my second home delivery. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
The packaging isn't as professional, if you like, as the first one. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:35 | |
But the principle is the same. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
100 benzos delivered right to my door. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:41 | |
These pills aren't like others sold in the UK. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:46 | |
Many black-market prescription drugs come from overseas. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
Both batches I've bought appear to have been made in Sri Lanka. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
There are a number of medications | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
which are coming in from a variety of sources. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
Through the internet. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
Many of these are produced on the subcontinent. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:07 | |
Unfortunately once you start manufacturing | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
without the standards that are required by law, | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
then different fillers are used, | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
different tableting processes. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
All sorts of binders, all sorts of things added in, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:24 | |
and that is the difference. You have no idea what you're getting, | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
because it is not a licensed product. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
I can't be sure what I've bought is the real thing, | 0:13:31 | 0:13:33 | |
so I'm sending some of my pills to Dublin for professional testing. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:38 | |
I need to know if they're genuine diazepam and not duds. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
Biochemist Dr Jack Bloomfield is experienced in testing | 0:13:44 | 0:13:49 | |
and analysing all kinds of drug compounds. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
It doesn't take long for him to identify my pills. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:57 | |
It's telling us that it is diazepam. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
It is diazepam, and it's 99% sure it's diazepam. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
-That's pretty sure. -That's pretty sure. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
Our analysis is very clear. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
These little blue tablets, that they don't have a number on them | 0:14:08 | 0:14:12 | |
to say that they're ten milligrams | 0:14:12 | 0:14:13 | |
or five milligrams or whatever. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
But I believe that these are ten-milligram diazepams. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:21 | |
These pills are all properly manufactured medical doses of diazepam. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:26 | |
Well, now I know for sure that what was delivered to my door | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
are, in fact, diazepam. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:32 | |
Just under ten milligrams of the active ingredient in each one of those small, little blue pills. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:38 | |
But bear in mind that to normally buy diazepam in any circumstances, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
you need to go to your GP where you're given a script, | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
and you go to a pharmacist where it's dispensed to you. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
I'm getting a class C, what is a controlled drug, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
delivered to my door in as much of the quantity as I can afford to buy. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:57 | |
Last year, 36 people died in Northern Ireland | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
from misuse of benzos. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
Deaths have been increasing over the last decade, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:09 | |
and that's a concern for those who are living with the grief. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
It's been seven years since you buried Matthew. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
Do you think the problem has got worse? | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
I think it's getting worse. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
My question is whether the criminal justice system is in any sense | 0:15:22 | 0:15:28 | |
alert to the real dangers here. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
In fact, I think the criminal justice system has completely abandoned people | 0:15:30 | 0:15:36 | |
to the vicious exploitation of these dealers, | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
that the criminal justice system is not protecting the young | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
and the innocent and the vulnerable from the viciousness of dealers. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:48 | |
So who is responsible for stopping diazepam from reaching the streets, | 0:15:48 | 0:15:54 | |
particularly when it's clearly come from outside Northern Ireland? | 0:15:54 | 0:15:59 | |
Finding out proved more challenging than buying benzos. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
I first contacted the Border Force, | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
which is responsible for securing the UK's borders. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
They told me that here, the Department Of Health is the lead agency, | 0:16:11 | 0:16:16 | |
so I did as advised and contacted the Department Of Health, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
who then said the Border Agency are primarily responsible | 0:16:20 | 0:16:24 | |
for security of UK borders, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
including vigilance against the importation of prohibited substances. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
The Border Agency chose not to be interviewed, | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
but accepted they could seize goods. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
There are a number of agencies involved, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
the PSNI, the Department Of Health, the Border Agency, | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
but there's always a chain of command. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
WHO is in charge? | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
The Border Agency are ultimately in charge | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
of what is coming in over the UK border. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
We will take the lead from the UK Border Agency | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
in terms of the investigation and prosecution of offences | 0:16:57 | 0:17:02 | |
that we've identified. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
-But they have to pass the case on to you? -Yes. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
I've seen for myself that dealers are selling imported drugs | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
unlicensed for here, so where is the weak link? | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
Given what they're doing and what we observed, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
on the face of it, it does seem pretty easy to sell and to buy. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:23 | |
They may feel as if they're immune to the law, | 0:17:23 | 0:17:28 | |
but I can assure the public that the PSNI are rigorously investigating | 0:17:28 | 0:17:33 | |
people involved in the importation of controlled drugs, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
and the situation is that importing, selling or supplying | 0:17:37 | 0:17:42 | |
any form of drugs, class C, diazepam in particular, | 0:17:42 | 0:17:47 | |
carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
I spoke to an addict from Belfast's Shankill Road. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
We agreed to disguise his identity, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
because, he says, he's under threat from loyalist paramilitaries. | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
But he's not afraid of police. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
Sure, there's nothing they can do. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
I mean, certain things, sometimes they take them off you | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
and things like that, but... | 0:18:10 | 0:18:12 | |
in all honesty, peelers are wasting their time. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
A peeler wouldn't even worry about taking a couple of yellows or blues off you. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:19 | |
Because everybody takes blues. And everybody takes yellows. Everybody. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
-How many do you take? -Two or three in the morning. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
-With a glass of water? -A glass of juice or something, aye. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
A few joints, maybe something to eat. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
Later on in the afternoon, maybe another couple of tablets. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:38 | |
And after that, just take whatever you're taking for the night. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
-Like what? -Maybe ten. Just sit there all night. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
-In one go or...? -Aye. I'll maybe just split them up. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:50 | |
I'd take three and then a cup of tea. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
You get a better hit with a joint and a cup of tea. Kick in quicker. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
They hit you, know what I mean? | 0:18:57 | 0:18:58 | |
When you crunch the tablets, they dissolve quicker inside you, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
so they start affecting you quicker. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
How do you know it's starting to kick in? Describe it for me. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
Just feel like you're... HE EXHALES SHARPLY | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
When you go to sit forward, it feels like somebody pulling your head back. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
Your shoulders... | 0:19:14 | 0:19:15 | |
When you go to lift off a seat and stand up, you're like... HE EXHALES CONTENTEDLY | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
-To the side. -Do you like that feeling? | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
You're mellowed out, know what I mean? You've no worries. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:25 | |
All the bad things that you worry about just seem to be away. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
You're just sort of blanking everything out. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
That's what you're using it for. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
'But that sensation comes at a cost.' | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
What we know is that if someone buys diazepam over the internet, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
what we tend to find is that when they're bought, | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
people don't tend to take them in ones and twos. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
They'll take them in tens and twenties. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
And the effects then, psychologically and physically, can be quite profound. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:55 | |
I mean, we are talking about fairly significant dosages. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
They'll describe then that as time goes on, that they'll continue | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
to drink and use drugs, | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
that they usually will find | 0:20:06 | 0:20:10 | |
that there are gaps then in their memory, that they can't remember | 0:20:10 | 0:20:15 | |
the later part of the evening, earlier part of the morning. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
Some people will say to you, "The next thing | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
"I remember is finding myself in a cell or in a casualty department." | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
And the bit in-between will be extremely vague. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
I definitely believe that normal diazepam prescribed off a doctor | 0:20:28 | 0:20:33 | |
and the illegal ones, there's a different reaction with them the next day. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:39 | |
You always seem to wake up in a bad mood. When you get up, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
you're still feeling the effects from the night before. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
You'd think you hadn't been asleep. You're, like, all over the show. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
You're walking all disorientated and, like, dead snappy and dead angry. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
While I've been learning about the effects of diazepam, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
I'm still getting messages from internet dealers. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
Now, the latest one says he can't deliver, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
so he's asked me to go to him. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
He's offering me pills in a blister pack. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
They're more prized, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:12 | |
because most users think they're less likely to be fake. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
-What? -Come back here cos I don't, like, I don't know that area, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
you know what I mean? | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
'This dealer calls himself Stephen. He clearly knows what he's doing is illegal. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
'Not only is he concerned about being seen, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
'he also thinks he's being careful about leaving evidence.' | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
Yeah, well, look... | 0:22:32 | 0:22:33 | |
'One sale over, Stephen is keen to set me up for other purchases. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
'He'd like my diazepam purchase to be a gateway to other drugs.' | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
In just over a week, I managed to pocket 400 pills. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:20 | |
At the maximum safe medical dose, | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
that's enough for more than three months. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
But I could have at least doubled that number, | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
because each dealer I bought from was ready to sell me more | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
within a matter of days. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
I've established how easy it is to buy benzos. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
What I want to know now is how the pills got to Northern Ireland. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:42 | |
-How're you doing? -Not bad, you? -Good, good, how are you keeping? | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
-Good. -Yeah. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:51 | |
Have you been busy? | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
Business is good? | 0:23:55 | 0:23:56 | |
So show me what you've got. | 0:23:58 | 0:23:59 | |
Hang on now. I'll just count this out. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:05 | |
This is the 20, 30, the 40. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:09 | |
I didn't take the fiver this time, and you're giving me this stuff. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
-This is the same stuff as the last time, isn't it? And this is the prescription drugs? -Yes. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
And this is the stuff that definitely is diazepam. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
Now is a good time to tell you, I'm Jennifer O'Leary. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
I'm a reporter for BBC Spotlight. I just wanted to find out from you, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:27 | |
from where are you getting these drugs? | 0:24:27 | 0:24:29 | |
-You know that this is illegal? -Right... | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
This prescription drug... | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
See if you don't get the camera out of my face, there'll be... | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
There's no licence to sell this in the UK. Can you tell me from where you're getting drugs from? | 0:24:36 | 0:24:40 | |
I can indeed, yeah. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
You know it's an offence to sell or supply what are class C drugs | 0:24:42 | 0:24:45 | |
to people, you're aware of that, aren't you? | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
-HE LAUGHS -You find this funny, selling drugs? | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
-You know this is illegal activity? -I do indeed. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
Are you worried about the PSNI at any stage? | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
Well, it sure is easy to sell prescription drugs | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
like this on the streets, but, as we clearly have seen there, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
he doesn't want to answer any hard questions. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
I want to find out what Liam had to say about selling me | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
100 black-market pills. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
I arranged to meet him again. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
-I'm Jennifer O'Leary, I'm a reporter for BBC Spotlight. -Oh, great(!) | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
-This is what you sold me. -(BLEEP) -Just to confirm that these are illicit drugs | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
and you're doing it illegally. You're not going to answer any questions? | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
You know it's illegal to sell these? | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
Well, again, just to prove that these are illicit drugs, | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
we have tested these in the laboratory. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
They are in fact diazepam. It's illegal to sell class C drugs. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
He has sold them to me, but won't answer any questions. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
No surprise there, really. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
'Posing online again, I asked Mick 2012 to phone me.' | 0:25:54 | 0:25:59 | |
When I revealed my identity, he said his pills came from a GP. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
But we know that's a lie. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:05 | |
The 400 pills I bought appear to have been legitimately manufactured abroad. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:11 | |
Not even one is licensed for sale in the UK. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
We traced Stephen's blister packs to a reputable factory | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
in Benin, in West Africa. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
The manufacturer told us they came from a batch of nearly ten million pills processed four years ago, | 0:26:20 | 0:26:26 | |
and sold to the governments of Burkina Faso and Cameroon. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
Licensed only in Africa, | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
but somehow ending up for sale on the streets of Northern Ireland. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
'I'm on my way to safely dispose of all the drugs I've bought.' | 0:26:36 | 0:26:41 | |
No-one knows the true scale of diazepam dependence | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
in Northern Ireland. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:50 | |
Nor does anyone know just how many of these drugs are being imported. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:55 | |
'The PSNI doesn't even publish figures for the amount of class C drugs it seizes. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:06 | |
'A conviction for selling diazepam illegally | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
'carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
'and a potentially unlimited fine. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
'But on the face of it, the penalties for importing | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
'and selling pills don't cause dealers to lose any sleep.' | 0:27:20 | 0:27:24 | |
A dealer convicted of attempting to sell prescription drugs | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
to Matthew Lyle just before he died was already on a suspended sentence | 0:27:28 | 0:27:33 | |
when he came to court. He was given another suspended sentence. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:38 | |
The judge said that because the amount of drugs was so small, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:46 | |
that that had to be mitigation. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
But hold on a second, we now know that even the tiniest amounts | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
of drugs, taken in combination, can be fatal. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
So what's the small quantity got to do with anything? | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
So the dangers here are dangers for everybody. For all of society. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:10 | |
There isn't a family that is not potentially vulnerable here. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
Gabriel Cush accepts that he will be taking diazepam | 0:28:13 | 0:28:17 | |
for the rest of his life. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
Plagued by long-term diazepam dependence, | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
he is looking at a different generation misusing powerful prescription pills. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:27 | |
For young lads to do that, I think it's sad. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
They don't know what they're messing with. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
And I just wish to God they would go off it, | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
and to see the other dangers, there's other dangers in the future. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:42 | |
They should be looking forward. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:44 | |
Instead of doubling down another tablet... | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
for the next fix. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:49 | |
They may have started life as medicine, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
but these little pills can bring death and misery. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
Their overuse in Northern Ireland has long been a tragic legacy | 0:28:54 | 0:28:58 | |
of history. | 0:28:58 | 0:28:59 | |
But sold on the internet and pushed on young people, | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
they are today a growing threat to the next generation, | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
carry-out drugs, death brought to the door. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 |