Summary

Drug Culture Word on the Week 17th October 2026.
It was back in 1963 that David Wilkinson brought out his book ‘the Cross and the Switchblade’ and we never thought it could happen on this side of the Atlantic!
It chronicled David’s courageous forays into darkest New York, taking the gospel and the prayers of his little Philadelphian church and challenging the street gangs. These gangs were all fuelled on drugs and the street preacher had a very rough time. However, his faith in Christ was rewarded and eventually ‘Teen Challenge’ a Christian Youth work was born.
We admired his work at a distance and said “This sort of thing could not happen over here.” How wrong we were! Roll on 60 plus years and we have a drug culture in Ireland which has grown violent in its hunger for money.
But it is the recent embarking into wholesale intimidation which has produced the easiest money for these disciples of Mammon. Drug debts, real or imaginary, have spread from the drug user to his relatives or friend’s requirement payment. If the alleged debt is paid the assailant will soon be back for more.
This ‘debt’ collection has been made easier by the drug gangs switching from guns to petrol bombs as weapons of choice. They may have overstepped their evil designs last week when the house in Waterford they torched killed both parents and two of the children. The remaining two children are in hospital.
Allegedly this was carried out as an act of intimidation. What it has done is focus the wrath of the community on the two local drug gangs. Police work in the area has also been stepped up and arrests are anticipated.
In some ways it feels like New York 1963. Drug taking is an expensive habit but one which cannot easily be stopped. The Government is considering total decriminalisation and expansion of drug consumption rooms where users can take illegal substances without fear of arrest.
This might reduce the Drug Barons profit by creating another channel but do little to put an end to the scourge of drug taking.
Perhaps we should take a leaf out of men like David Wilkinson’s book and create rooms where the Gospel could be proclaimed so that those caught in addiction may be converted to Christ and delivered from their addiction. His invitation still stands: -
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11 verses 28 to 30).