THE DEATH OF twins in Limerick from a suspected overdose has prompted a city councillor to speak out about how to tackle drugs in the city.
The twins, who were named locally today as Peter and Kevin Moran, were found dead in an apartment on Steamboat Quay in the centre of Limerick city yesterday. A post-mortem is due to be carried out on their bodies today and it is understood that foul play is not suspected.
Limerick City Councillor Michael Hourigan, who is also head of the city’s Joint Policing Committee, told TheJournal.ie that the problem of drugs in Limerick needs to be tackled.
As the chairman of the Joint Policing Committee I would be very concerned about the level of drug use in the city, especially among young people. A tragedy like this is enormous for the family.
He commended the gardaí on tackling drugs in the city and said they “have done wonderful job in relation to drugs and the main ‘drugs people’ have been put away” but that drugs still need to be tackled.
Fine Gael’s Cllr Hourigan said he believed there are a number of ways to do this.
I’m convinced myself the role of community guards must be enforced as strong as possible. They are hugely important in the city of Limerick
He said that communities begin to trust them and “they know what’s going on, especially among our teenagers in that age group”. Cllr Hourigan added that the age level is dropping for the usage of drugs, from “very early teens right up to the top teen years”.
We need to create awareness through education in schools – at national school level. We need to tackle it at a very early age, especially in national schools, the danger of using drugs.
The city councillor added that a report out this week showed that people “can be affected very seriously” and there can be “very serious brain damage from cannabis”. The report from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland found that cannabis use makes physical changes to parts of the brain when smoked by adolescents.
Cllr Hourigan added that the media is also important to “bring our message home to people”. “Young people maybe don’t read the papers but they will go on Twitter and on all the vehicles we have. We should make full use of that,” he said.
He concluded that yesterday’s deaths were “a tragic event particularly for the family, and the two young men to lose their lives at such a young age with their whole lives ahead of them.”
The findings of the post-mortems on the brothers’ bodies are expected later today.
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