TERAPROOF:User:conoranthonyDate:26/10/2010Time:22:48:18Edition:27/10/2010ExaminerLiveXX2710Page: 13Zone:XX1

13ANALYSISIrish ExaminerWednesday 27.10.2010

XX1 - V2

Getting to the root of US presidents

“WE make use of adiplomatic means toship. If interested

to buy you have nothing to worryabout as delivery is 100% guaranteed.”This was the reassurance from

“Mitch”, an online trader in oneof the fastest growing illegal internetactivities — the sale of so-calledresearch chemicals which are in factsynthetic drugs mimicking the effectsof cocaine, amphetamines andcannabis.It’s a global and competitive

business, and all you need to buy is anemail account and access to a WesternUnion outlet; those involved haveno fears about being contacteddirectly by prospective buyers,protected as they are through theanonymity of the internet.The drugs on sale include substances

which were highly publicised earlierthis year for being on sale in headshops — such as mephedrone — butmainly they are stimulants such asMDPV, methylone, butylone, whichwere all outlawed earlier this year,and more worrying substances likecocaine and heroin derivatives andother largely unknown chemicals.So while the head shops have

closed, business online is flourishingwith growing numbers of sellersadvertising their wares in cyberspace.Queries to various vendors of the

substances on offer elicit similarresponses. Most replies came by email,but one entrepreneur called less than ahalf an hour after the query was made.The man, calling from a blocked

number in Hungary, said he couldsend 1kg of MDPV by post in“discreet packaging”. Upon furtherquestioning he said it would belabelled as paracetemol.He said 1kg would cost 1,060 and

10 grams would cost 215, 180 forthe product and 35 for postage andpackaging.Meanwhile, “Mitch” said his pack-

aging of the drugs was such that theywould get into the country withoutcustoms checking it.“It costs $4,750 [ 2,870] including

shipping for 1kg, delivery is two daysto your doorstep. Once we confirmyour shipping address we will packagethe goods and immediately after

payment is confirmed we will shipout.”Another contact from Cameroon

offered “99.9% pure MDPV”, alsopromising “discreet delivery” toIreland with no problems, and for themuch lesser price of 1kg for $1900.”When “Mitch” found out he was

being undercut significantly, he sentthis response:“If you are in this business then you

should learn never to believe anythingtoo good to be true for it is not true.The Cameroonians are all scam blackAfricans who have no good future,they don’t even have a goodenvironment talk, less of a laboratory.“Anyways, if you need a genuine

business then you need not tolook any further, we ship from ourlaboratory in Malaysia. We make useof a diplomatic means to ship whichmeans the package goes throughwithout the customs checking it.”Paddy Lonergan, assistant principal

in charge at Portlaoise Mail Centredisagrees it is possible to get packagesinto the country without goingthrough customs, but admits it isimpossible to pick up all or even mostillegal substances. Simply, he said,no-one knows.“From the point of view of any

drugs agency it is impossible tomeasure how much is gettingthrough,” he says.“It was a rule of thumb internation-

ally that you pick up about 10% ofwhat’s coming in. We would say thatwas before we had dogs and scanningequipment, but on the other handyou could say now drug smugglers aremuch more sophisticated so we justcannot say. Nobody can produce astatistic on it,” he said.According to Mr Lonergan

“everything goes” when it comes totrying to get products past customsofficials, and intercepting it is aboutrisk assessment, experience andprofiling.“We tend to look at it in two ways,

drugs of abuse such as heroin orcannabis, and then anything inpowder or tablet form which comesunder the Irish Medicines Board.“We look at bigger parcels, packages

with the same return address, or samecoloured envelopes, anything that

looks out of the ordinary.“Most will have a fake declaration.

For example they might say it is abook, but then you scan it and youwill see the pages are gouged out andthe drugs are inside. The dogs willdetect it and then we scan.“Cannabis often comes as organic

substances, like cornflakes — so if youscan it will look the cornflakes. Theycould be hidden in things like food,candle sticks, or CD players with theinside taken out. Anything really.”Although they now have modern

technology to assist, customs officialsstill literally stand scrutinisingconveyor belts of packages enteringthe country, looking for anythingwhich might not be the right shape,size for the declaration label.But of course it is impossible to go

through every package, and smugglerswill go to any lengths.Recently, customs seized cannabis

resin which was sealed in packageswrapped up as Kit-Kat bars in a largerpackage with regular bars.“There is a perception that

wrapping something in carbon paperor tinfoil means it cannot be pickedup by dogs or Xray machines. That isnot the case,” Mr Lonergan says.Intercepted drugs, which can range

from prescription pills like Xanax orvalium to cannabis resin and unidenti-fied white powders, are coming fromcountries such as China, India andPakistan.If drugs are intercepted, customs

will check out the addressee on theirown system and then with gardaí tosee if there are any matches.An added difficulty now, however,

is that with tracing and trackingfacilities, if someone sees their pack-

age is held up at Portlaoise they mightbecome suspicious and not acceptdelivery of it.Regular post, which is monitored

far less than packages, is being usedtoo, especially for smaller consign-ments for recreational use orproblem drug users.

ACCORDING to Dr ColinO’Gara, head of the addictionsunit at St John of God

Hospital, Dublin, drug smugglersare ingenious in their methods.“Substances are being packaged

from the manufacturers into birthdaycards. It looks like a card but youslit down the sides and the powder isflat-packed inside.”It was thought the closure of head

shops would prevent people gettingtheir hands on such substances, but as

predicted, it has pushed it under-ground.Dr O’Gara said while there was

certainly less availability, the clinic wasseeing the same level of presentationconnected to synthetic drugs.“There has been no decrease in

people presenting for treatment butnow obtaining them has shifted to theillicit market,” he said.“The price of drugs like

mephedrone have gone down sincethey were made illegal and there is stilla huge appetite for them. User surveyssay they prefer the high frommephedrone than cocaine,” he says.Indeed, given the popularity of

new synthetic drugs it was inevitablethe substances would move to theillicit market.“People are taking a mix of

whatever is available at the time. Andwith the internet there is no control.

Customs cannot intercept everything,”Dr O’Gara said.Not only are his patients accessing

the synthetic substances, anti-anxietybenzodiazepines, known to be highlyaddictive, such as Xanax, and sleepingtablets are also being bought online.Bearing this out, a joint operation

between customs and Interpol thismonth saw 39 seizures in the firstweek, 36 in the second week and 55in the third, with the main itemsintercepted being Xanax, Diazapam,Larazapam, all benzodiazepines.The pills, which are prescription

only, came predominantly came fromIndia, but also from the US and thePhilippines.Other products intercepted were

Sibutramine, a prescription weight losspill, “white powder” which was sentfor identification and hydrocodone, asemi-synthetic substance derived fromcodeine.According to Mr Lonergan,

profiling is the key to interception,and customs officials tend to knowwhich countries to look out for. Butjust because the package comes fromone country, it does not mean thatwas where it originated.“If you are buying from a website

it might be based in one country,but you will often find the product isdistributed from somewhere else,” saysMr Lonergan.This kind of anonymous global

operation no doubt helps dealers tostay one step ahead of the law. Andordering drugs through the post notonly allows the seller to be distant andanonymous, the buyer too is one stepremoved from the process.“The only rule in all of this is that

there are no rules.”

Headshops may have been shut down, but many of the illegal drugs which had been sold in them can be bought on the internet.

Drugs:Discreetdeliveryassured

With illegal drugs capableof being smuggled into thecountry via the postal service,international criminals aretargeting Ireland,writes Jennifer Hough

‘Research’ chemicals: For sale online■ MDPV: Acts as a stimulant.The acute effects may includerapid heartbeat, increase in bloodpressure, increased alertness andawareness, increased wakefulnessand arousal, anxiety, agitation,perception of a diminishedrequirement for food and sleep.

MDPV has been sold sincearound 2007 as a researchchemical.■ Dimethocaine: A researchchemical which is a derivativeof cocaine.

User reports show the effectsare much stronger than expected.The effects are similar to those of

cocaine — mood lift, euphoriaand stimulation.

The effects don’t come in arush like cocaine, but they lastlonger.■ Diamorphine: A semi-syntheticdrug synthesised from morphine,a derivative of the opium poppy.

Frequent and regular administra-tion is associated with toleranceand physical dependence,which may develop into addiction.■ JWH: Produces effects inanimals similar to those of THC,a cannabinoid naturally presentin cannabis, leading to its use insynthetic cannabis.

THE documentary on PresidentJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 1963visit to Ireland presented by

Ryan Tubridy was fascinating at manylevels.Many older people will have re-

membered watching the visit on tele-vision, but that was in black andwhite, because it was before the ad-vent of colour television.One of the more surprising aspects

of the documentary was Kennedy’squotation from George Bernard Shawduring his address to the Dáil: “Otherpeople see things and say ‘Why?’” hesaid, “I dream things that never wereand say ‘Why not?’”Most Americans will remember that

quotation from the eulogy deliveredby the late Senator Edward Kennedyat his brother Bobby’s funeral. It wascertainly one of the most memorablelines and moving moments ever wit-nessed live on television.Probably very few people would

have been aware President Kennedycracked a joke in the Dáil that “infu-riated de Valera”. Kennedy had beenclose to his maternal grandfather, John“Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, after whomhe was called. He was therefore par-ticularly conscious of the fact that Le-inster House had been the home of

the Fitzgeralds of Leinster.“I regret to say that no one has yet

found any link between me and agreat Irish patriot — Lord EdwardFitzgerald,” the president told theDáil. “Lord Edward, however, did notlike to stay here in his family homebecause he wrote to his mother: ‘Le-inster House does not inspire thebrightest ideas’.”Seán Lemass later stated in a 1966

interview that de Valera confrontedKennedy over the joke. “We went upfrom the Dáil to Áras an Uachtaráinand there President de Valera said tohim that he had done no service topoliticians by this quotation,” accord-ing to Lemass. There was no mentionof whether Kennedy responded.People who knew de Valera always

maintained that he had a good senseof honour. He might not have beengood at telling jokes, but he wouldrecognise one and have a good chuck-le himself. It was a pity that Kennedydidn’t tell him to lighten up. The vastmajority of Irish people would proba-bly agree with Lord Edward Fitzgeraldnow that “Leinster House does notinspire the brightest ideas”.There was no suggestion in the pro-

gramme that de Valera resented theAnglo-Irish lord being quoted, but

suggestion that Kennedy was the firstIrish-American president could betaken by many people to be insensitiveand even offensive.Many of Kennedy’s predecessors

claimed Irish links. Presidents UlyssesS Grant, Grover Cleveland, andWilliam McKinley claimed distantIrish ancestry, as have subsequent pres-idents such as Richard Nixon, BillClinton, and even Barack Obama. Ofcourse, Ronald Reagan claimed aneven closer relationship. His greatgrandparents, Michael Reagan and his

wife Catherine Mulcahy came fromTipperary.Some of the earlier presidents had

even closer Irish ties. President An-drew Jackson’s parents came from Car-rickfergus, Co Antrim, while James KPolk was a great-grandson of WilliamPolk from Co Donegal. Polk waspresident during the Great IrishFamine, but he blocked a bill inCongress that would have provided$500,000 for famine relief. He did notbelieve that government had any rightto give the people’s money away for

charitable purposes.Abraham Lincoln’s predecessor

James Buchanan’s father was born inRathmelton, Co Donegal. PresidentChester Arthur’s father, William, wasborn in Antrim in 1796.President Woodrow Wilson’s grand-

father, James Wilson, was from Stra-bane, Co Down, where he was bornin 1787. Of course, Wilson did notendear himself to the Irish-Americansduring the struggle for Irish indepen-dence. He refused to press Ireland’scase for freedom at the Paris Peace

Conference in 1919.He even refused to talk to an Irish

delegation that was sent to meet himin London in December 1918. Onemember of that delegation, MichaelCollins, actually advocated kidnappingPresident Wilson to make him listen.What was unique about John F

Kennedy was that he was the first andstill only Irish-American Catholic tobecome president of the US. But it isas offensive to suggest the others werenot Irish-Americans as it is to suggestProtestants are not Irish.

President Kennedy leaving CollinsBarracks, Cork; driving along StPatrick’s Street in 1963; and LeinsterHouse, where he upset de Valera.

Any suggestion that JF Kennedywas the first Irish-Americanpresident is insensitive and untrue,writes Ryle Dwyer