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RURAL ADDICTION ***NEW***

Rural Addiction boot-supplies Image Name: Rural Addiction boot-supplies
Rural Addiction needle-exchange Image Name: Rural Addiction needle-exchange
Rural Addiction mick-needles Image Name: Rural Addiction mick-needles
Rural Addiction michael-inchydoney Image Name: Rural Addiction michael-inchydoney
Rural Addiction michael-clonakilty Image Name: Rural Addiction michael-clonakilty
Rural Addiction methadone Image Name: Rural Addiction methadone

Airs Tuesday 25 October & Wednesday 26 October at 9.30pm on RTÉ2

Rural Addiction is a new observational documentary series by Midas Productions, focusing on the lives of addicts in small-town Ireland and the struggles that go hand-in-hand with addiction, such as stigmatisation, homelessness and mental health issues. The programmes also explore some of the support services available.

A decade ago heroin was still hard to find ‘beyond the pale’ and it was expensive. Addicts from all over the country would organise ‘weekend trips’ into Dublin to get their week’s supply. Seizing the opportunity, the main dealers expanded their supply channels beyond the capital and a lot of those who had merely been ‘dabblers’ became hardened users overnight. With no support systems or government plan to combat it, the floodgates opened – rural addiction became rife.

The heroin available today is purer and cheaper – so much so that a ‘bag of brown’ will cost less than a family meal in a fast-food restaurant.

In Nenagh, we encounter Ali. “Drugs are everywhere” she says, “I’m tired of people calling me names. Everyone here knows me as a junkie, but I want to show them I can get clean.” We also meet her fiancé, Brian, and his brother Joe, both of them struggling to kick the habit as well.

In Rural Addiction, we follow individuals in some of the worst affected towns, places like Portlaoise and Mullingar, where dealers audaciously wait outside the post office for ‘clients’ to emerge with their cash. And we hear the stories too of Michael, in Clonakilty, who battles alcohol addiction and Wayne, in Nenagh, a homeless young father who is addicted to tablets.

In Limerick, we travel with two staff members from the Ana Liffey Drug Project, who arrange needle exchanges on the back streets – their car boot stashed with supplies that allow users to inject safely.

Demonstrating character, grit, disorder, and the occasional ‘slip’, Rural Addiction is a provocative documentary series that gives voice to the people who not only carry the physical and mental burden of addiction but have also been cast aside by society.