Gardaí still not tested for drugs almost five years after policy announcement

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gardai-still-not-tested-for-drugs-almost-five-years-after-policy-announcement/a610763020.html

Posted by PoppedCork

15 Comments

  1. Almost five years later and they’re still working on the regulations. Laws are already passed, the inspectorate warned about drug use, but nothing actually changes. Recruits get tested, armed Gardaí don’t. Hard to call it complexity anymore it just feels like kicking the can down the road while public trust takes the hit.

  2. SpankMyLurcher on

    They know how many would fail and that would be quite a large problem for them to replace – don’t expect to ever see this policy come in.

  3. I mean hardly surprising given drugs are somehow disappearing from evidence rooms. Numbers aren’t high enough for them to risk a heap of staff being suspended for failed drugs tests

  4. ShouldHaveGoneToUCC on

    Members of the Defence Forces are subject to random drug testing, and it’s actually carried out.

    Insane that Gardai aren’t subject to the same.

  5. Remember a few years ago when the Lads faked over 1 million (later revised to nearly 2 million) non-existent roadside breath tests.

    Ya mad hures ye.

  6. I find it mad that a lad working as a labourer on a building site can lose their job for smoking a joint the day before, but the people i want to know are completely sober including surgeons, dentists, doctors and judges do not. It’s how the traditional ‘lower class’ are so regulated but the ‘upper class’ jobs are not. I wonder why that is? Maybe because the ‘upper class’ are the ones that introduce the laws.

  7. To be honest, unless they are in a particular position of power and unit, like the inspector overseeing gangland crimes or other things with high chance of blackmail and intimidation – I don’t care what they take.

    And in those positions, we should only care about certain high addiction / life destroying drugs like heroin, meth, crack, and possibly coke.

    Nobody should be persecuted for weed, mdma, and especially not psychedelics.

    Whatever harmless stuff people do on their own time is their business.

  8. Not a surprise at all in my opinion. A force struggling to retain current staff and to get new people to join. Plenty of them enjoy a bag on a night out.

  9. mrbuddymcbuddyface on

    Considering the Draconian random drug tests that ordinary drivers can be prosecuted for, I think it should be mandatory that all Garda drivers be tested before getting behind the wheel at least weekly, randomly.

  10. 5 years is what we call early days in Irish politics. No time at all really.

    Some places have 5 year plans we have 5 years to plan.