WEST Cork will be awash with cocaine this Christmas posing serious health risks, a frontline doctor has warned.

Dr Jason van der Velde, a leading pre-hospital emergency medicine doctor based in West Cork, is calling for a harm reduction debate on the Class A drug.

He told The Southern Star he sees first-hand how cocaine harms users, their families and the wider community.

‘From where I stand, this needs to be a harm reduction debate,’ he said. ‘The injuries, violence and the mental health collapse do not go away, they just keep arriving by ambulance.

‘Cocaine is now the most common drugs presented to Irish treatment services after alcohol, accounting for around 40% of drug treatment cases. That tells us this is mainstream harm.’

He said cocaine arrives with a ‘sense of height’ and people feel sharper, faster and, more worryingly, untouchable.

‘Judgement lifts away from reality and risk taking becomes normal,’ he warned. ‘That is when cars are driven too fast and when decisions are made that cannot be taken back. That is when unwise intimate choices are made, with consequences that last far longer than the high.’

He said the high associated with cocaine sits on a parallel with aggression. ‘This is not because people are violent by nature, but because the drug strips away restraint and dulls pain,’ he explained. ‘Anxiety and paranoia creep in and then situations escalate quickly.’

Calling for a harm reduction debate and citing the Portuguese health-led model, he added: ‘Punishment alone does not change the physiology of dependency. It doesn’t prevent the next crash, the next assault or the next mental health crisis. If we are serious about harm reduction then we need to focus on what actually works.’

He added that it is not about being ‘soft on drugs’ but more about being serious about harm reduction.

‘Because when we ignore harm, it does not disappear, it just keeps arriving by ambulance.

Meanwhile, a snapshot across two court sittings in Bandon last week saw five cases of young men caught in the possession of cocaine, with Judge Joanne Carroll warning that it is a serious drug and damaging for one’s health. She warned the defendants that a conviction for drugs possession could harm potential travel and career plans.