DRUG dealing in residential streets has reached a “crisis point”, according to residents who say they feel unsafe in their neighbourhood and ignored by the authorities.

More than 800 people have signed a petition calling for the police, Islington Council and MP Jeremy Corbyn to address what they say is a marked escalation of open drug dealing and drug use in Finsbury Park and Tollington.

Several residents interviewed by the Tribune said that while drug dealing is not new in the area, it has become increasingly blatant in the past two years, along with people openly injecting and smoking drugs, including in front of schools.

Tollington’s Christopher Travers, who set up the petition, said: “Somebody said to me, ‘This is like the climate emergency, but it’s the ­Finsbury Park drugs emergency.’ We need to do something about it.

“People are profiting enormously from this, profiting from death, and we’re not doing anything to stop them.”

Jane Berthoud, from Marriott Road, said: “You can’t live in this street and not see what’s happening and not be concerned.

“People are openly taking crack, kids are having to step over passed-out addicts on their way into school.

“It can be intimidating. You try to walk down to the tube and you’re passing people in a terrible state, and to walk home on one’s own in the evening, it can be quite scary. People don’t know what to do next. You ring one number, then you’re told to ring another number. It feels like no one is really listening to us. No one is taking this seriously enough.”

Laura, who lives in Stroud Green and has two children, said: “I took my son to school just before nine o’clock the other morning, and there were people sitting there visibly smoking a crack pipe.”
Residents also say they are seeing more crime and anti-social behaviour, such as theft, car break-ins, and street defecation.

When residents raised the issue to the council last summer they were advised to report every incident they witnessed to the Metropolitan Police. This eventually led to an increased police presence, but a greater social change is needed to bring about lasting change, residents said.

“No one wants to see people punished,” Laura said. “There is a real recognition that people need support.”

A spokesperson from the drug support charity WithYou said: “People who use drugs are often misunderstood. They may be using drugs as a reaction to trauma and the suffering that comes with it. Drugs offer a temporary escape and an opportunity to numb the struggle of dealing with issues such as homelessness or poor mental health.”

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn told the Tribune that he met council leadership and the police in July after receiving emails from his constituents about the recent increase in anti-social behaviour, drug use and drug dealing, and that he would continue to hold meetings.

He added: “I will continue to use my voice in Parliament to speak up for the systemic changes necessary to tackle the root causes of this problem. That means reversing decades of austerity, which has decimated our communities and hollowed out the fabric of our society.”

Islington’s chief of community safety, Councillor John Woolf, said the council was playing a “crucial role in addressing anti-social behaviour and crime”.

And Inspector Ross Hickman, from the Met Police’s Islington Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “I know that drugs have devastating consequences on communities so I completely understand community concern about drug use in the Finsbury Park and Tollington areas. I share this concern and we are taking it very seriously and have already taken a number of proactive steps to deter this unwanted and unlawful behaviour.

“I want to reassure residents that we have targeted patrols around the Finsbury Park and Tollington areas at key times when we know anti-social behaviour is likely to occur and we have a number of operations planned to directly tackle drug dealing in Finsbury Park and the surrounding area.

“Just last week, officers carried out a warrant in the Finsbury Park area and recovered a significant amount of suspected class-A drugs and made two arrests.

“Drugs and related issues are not something we can tackle solely through policing, so working with our partners is a key part of our holistic response.”