Ireland one of the highest users of cocaine in Europe
An image of a cocaine seizure above left.
Ireland has one of the highest rates of cocaine use in Europe, according to the findings of a new report.
The State has also been identified by international law enforcement agencies as a gateway for cannabis smuggled from Morocco into the rest of Europe.
The findings are contained in a Europol and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) overview of drug trafficking throughout the continent published today.
The report also found:
1 – Ireland is used by Vietnamese and Chinese organised crime gangs cultivating home-grown cannabis.
2 – The State has the highest rate of use of new drugs or so-called “legal highs”.
3 – Polish and Lithuanian gangs are reportedly trafficking drugs from the Netherlands into Ireland.
4 – In the study, Ireland is identified as among a “handful” of countries where cocaine use remains “relatively high”, particularly among young adults.
5 – Spain, the UK, Italy, and Denmark were also identified as having high rates of cocaine use.
Closing Garda stations will improve Irish policing ’claims Minister Shatter’
The closure of 95 garda stations will be carried out to meet today’s policing needs, and not because of the tightening of public purse strings, it was claimed.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter defended his decision, which he claimed will improve the quality of policing in communities and not deprive them of resources.
The minister said garda stations manned for a couple of hours a day do not act as a deterrent to burglars, adding that the spike in crime in 2011 was before any closures.
“Clearly you can’t operate on the basis of a garda station network designed by the British Government, somewhere between 1850 and 1900, for the policing of the rebellious Irish, which was the perception of the location of some of these stations,” he said.
Mr Shatter hit out at critics who said the closures will save only small amounts of money.
“I am afraid that completely misses the point,” he added.
“The objective is to maximise the time that our well-trained and highly skilled gardai spend on operational duties.
“This means increasing garda visibility, improving garda mobility and using limited resources better.”
The mainly rural stations shutting today include 10 across Co Galway, nine in Co Kerry and in the district of Sligo/Leitrim, eight in Co Clare and four stations in Co Donegal where several elderly people have been burgled and assaulted in recent weeks.
Another five stations will also close in the coming months under plans approved by the minister, on top of 39 closed last year.
Some 28 garda districts are to be amalgamated to form 14.
Protests are being held at several stations nationwide, including at Stepaside, south Dublin, and in Longford.
Yesterday the priest who celebrated the funeral of murdered Detective Adrian Donohoe, Father Michael Cusack, publicly called for the Government to reflect on the huge cuts affecting the Garda force.
Mr Shatter said Ireland’s 4.5 million population will still have 564 stations, compared to 83 in Northern Ireland for 1.4 million residents and 340 stations in Scotland for 5.2 million people.
Elsewhere, there were 213 new vehicles in 2012 with another €5m available for garda cars this year.
“Modern policing is no longer about bricks and mortar,” he continued, adding there would be 61,000 additional patrol hours.
“It is about freeing up gardai from behind the desk, so they are out and about in our communities engaging in frontline policing – preventing, detecting and disrupting crime.”
Mr Shatter spoke out at the launch of garda community crime prevention programmes and the signing of a new memorandum of understanding between gardai and Muintir na Tire, a rural organisation.
The group supports the operation of more than 1,300 community alert groups around the country.
He condemned “the appalling and cowardly attacks on the homes of elderly people in recent times”, adding that gardai have his full support in tackling the evil perpetrators.
“The attacks on elderly persons underline the need for community vigilance and partnership with local gardai,” he added.
Dungloe Donegal School evacuated in chemical alert
A Donegal Community school was evacuated this morning after chemicals used in a lab were found to have become unstable.
Some 495 pupils and 40 teaching staff at Rosses Community School in Dungloe were forced to leave the building.
Principal John Gorman said chemistry teacher Michelle Gallagher had discovered the large canisters of lithium and potassium, stored in a fume cupboard, had crystallised when she carried out an inspection before her first class this morning. She had extensive experience of dealing with chemicals and took immediate steps to deal with the matter, Mr Gorman said.
He said the school was quickly evacuated and the fire service was called. Units from Dungloe and Gweedore attended, along with the chief fire officer based in Letterkenny.
Some students were taking mock exams this morning. The business and maths exams have been rescheduled to next Thursday.
Cigarette packets in Ireland to come with graphic warnings from tomorrow
All cigarette packets produced for the Irish market from tomorrow will carry graphic pictures of the damage smoking can do to your health.
Health Minister James Reilly today revealed the images, which included photographs of rotten teeth, blackened lungs, and throat tumours.
Dr Reilly says research shows one in four smokers wants to kick the habit after seeing the graphic shots.
It will take up to a year for all existing cigarette stock to be cleared from shops and replaced with the new packs. The minister also said the introduction of entirely unbranded packets is his next priority.
Brave USA shooting victim Gabby Giffords makes emotional plea to Congress lawmakers over guns
Gabby Giffords appeared as the first person to testify before the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the December 14th incident in which a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, grievously wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, made an emotional plea today for Congress to take action to curb gun violence in the aftermath of last month’s Connecticut school massacre, urging lawmakers to “be bold, be courageous.”
Wearing a red outfit and speaking haltingly, Ms Giffords appeared as the first person to testify before the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the December 14th incident in which a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
“This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans,” Ms Giffords, who survived a head wound in an assassination attempt last year in Tucson, Arizona, said, speaking haltingly. Six people were killed and 13 wounded in the incident.
“Speaking is difficult. But I need to say something important,” she told the senators. “Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying – too many children. We must do something. It will be hard. But the time is now.”
Accompanied by her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, she concluded: “You must act. Be bold, be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you.” She did not take questions from the committee.
Responding to outrage across the country following the Connecticut massacre, president Barack Obama and other Democrats are seeking the largest gun-control package in decades.
Witnesses and lawmakers at the hearing agreed on the constitutional right to own guns but clashed over Mr Obama’s proposals, particularly the call for universal background checks for all gun buyers. That is seen as the most likely restriction to gain bipartisan support in a sharply divided Congress.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the powerful gun rights lobbying group the National Rifle Association, dismissed Obama’s plan to close loopholes in the background check law.
“Let’s be honest, background checks will never be universal because criminals will never submit to them,” LaPierre said.
Mr Kelly also testified. The couple recently founded Americans for Responsible Solutions, a group intended to combat gun violence.
Mr Obama’s proposals to curb gun violence include reinstating the US ban on military-style “assault” weapons, limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines, and more extensive background checks of prospective gun buyers, largely to verify whether they have a history of crime or mental illness.
Republicans and some pro-gun Democrats envision a more modest package. It is unclear whether there is sufficient support in the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-led House of Representatives to pass any gun restrictions beyond improved background checks.
The calls for gun control – so prominent during the emotional days following the shootings in Connecticut – will face political reality in Congress.
The committee chairman, Senator Patrick Leahey, made clear whatever measures would be considered to rein in gun violence, there would be no move to erode the fundamental right of Americans to own a gun, which is protected under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.
“Americans have the right to have guns in their home to protect their family,” he said.
Americans must come together on the issue, Mr Leahey, a Vermont Democrat, added.
Most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress favor gun rights and represent constituents who do as well. The NRA has called any attempt to restrict weapon sales an assault on Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.
Chimps learn the use of tools by watching others
Chimpanzees can learn to use tools more efficiently by watching how others use them, new research suggests. The findings help illuminate ways that culture could evolve in non-human animals.
“Social learning is very important to maintaining a culture,” study researcher Shinya Yamamoto, of Kyoto University in Japan, told LiveScience. “For example, in humans, we can develop technologies based on previous techniques, and other people can learn the more efficient techniques by accumulating cultural knowledge.” The new research provides insight into how cultural evolution might occur in chimpanzees.
In the study, nine captive chimpanzees at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University were presented with a straw-tube they could use to obtain juice from a bottle through a small hole. Of their own accord, the chimps used one of two techniques to get the juice: “dipping” and “straw-sucking.” The dipping technique involved inserting the straw into the juice and removing it to suck on the end, whereas straw-sucking entailed sipping the juice through the straw. Straw-sucking was a much more efficient means of getting juice than dipping.
Five of the chimps initially used the dipping method and four used the straw-sucking method. The researchers then paired each of the five chimps who used dipping with a chimp who was a straw-sucker. Four of the dippers switched to straw-sucking after observing the other animal using the more effective technique. The fifth dipper switched too, but only after watching a human using it.
Chimps who paid the most attention to the straw-sucking demonstrator switched to the new method more rapidly. After switching, the animals never reverted to the dipping method.
The apes’ adoption of the straw-sucking technique shows social learning, the researchers say. The chimpanzees who were dippers “didn’t learn the sucking technique by themselves, only when they are paired with the sucking individual,” Yamamoto said. The one chimp that didn’t adopt the new technique right away may have been subordinate to her partner chimp, Yamamoto said. As soon as Yamamoto demonstrated the technique, however, the chimp started using it.
The results contrast with the findings of previous studies, which have shown that chimpanzees don’t always adopt an improved technique used by others. One explanation may be that unlike in previous studies, the better technique (straw-sucking) was no more physically or mentally difficult to perform than the original technique (dipping), the researchers said. Additionally, the chimpanzees in previous studies seemed satisfied with using their original technique, whereas these chimps may not have been content with their method’s efficiency, the researchers added.
This study and others like it “add to the idea that the apes are very well capable of social learning,” primatologist Frans de Waal, of Emory University in Atlanta, told LiveScience.
Scientists have debated for decades about whether or not animals have culture. “We cannot hold chimpanzees against the standard of modern-day human culture,” de Waal, who was not involved with the research, said, but “the border is much grayer than we thought.”
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