I Would Like To Welcome You To Drugland

Residents of a chic beach resort favoured by celebs and hipsters claim that drug use has plagued the area ever since Londoners came there.

Following a performance at the town’s Dreamland venue, a poor batch of MDMA killed a 17-year-old schoolgirl and hospitalised 21 others. This incident prompted Margate residents to speak out about the drug problem in the popular coastal tourist destination.

Emily Stokes, 17, died after a suspected MDMA overdose during a drum ‘n’ bass gig on June 29 at Dreamland, which has now been dubbed by some locals as ‘Drugland’.

Twenty-one more children became sick following drug use suspicions; one of them was placed in an induced coma.

Locals are horrified by the tragic episode, and some are pushing for Dreamland’s licensing to be cancelled.

The location of the event is the site of an amusement park that dates back to 1880 and was revitalised in 2015 following decades of decline.

Its regeneration is part of Margate’s transition to an arts hub for former Londoners which has breathed new life into the 60s seaside resort.

However, some long-term locals and regular visitors have said that the trendiness of Dreamland and its events have brought harmful drugs to their doorstep.

Veteran Margate Ray Voss, 78, who has been a resident of the seaside town since 1966, criticised the invasion of former Londoners.

He said: ’60 or 70 per cent of the people who came down here take drugs.

‘When you walk around you can smell it. They smoke cannabis.

‘It’s bad when the gigs are on at Dreamland too. It’s more like Drugland, Margate.’

Since she was six years old, Liz Hammocks, now sixty-two, has lived in Margate and has spent the last twenty years managing businesses in Thanet.

She said: ‘We definitely can smell a lot more weed all the time. Sometimes we are standing here and it just wafts through the shop.

‘I think it’s due to the more artsy people who are coming down.

‘Years and years ago, this was a very posh area. It had Russell & Bromley along the high street and all that.

‘But then it all dropped when the package holidays became a thing.

‘And then the London councils have sent down the people they don’t want here – so it’s kind of the dropped from here.’

But Liz added: ‘But to be fair, I wouldn’t say the town is worse than it was 10 or 20 years ago. We can’t blame the DFLs (Down From London) for it.’

Retired painter and decorator Colin Goodman, 66, said: ‘Whenever you get a concentration of people like in Dreamland – you get an increase in drugs, you get an increase in crime and an increase in violence.

‘It’s the same across the whole country.

‘And people say that it’s a good thing because of the money – but the council keeps the money to themselves.

‘Us people on the outskirts rather than the old town don’t get our bins collected.

‘You couldn’t pay me to be a young person today with all the peer pressure they get with drugs.’

Former pub manager Dean Temple, 37, said that the venue’s renewed popularity was bound to lead to an increase in drug-taking.

Dean said: ‘It’s the law of attractions. You are going to have drugs there because it attracts young people.

‘I ran pubs for many years and the police would always come in if we played garage music and say that it attracts drugs.

‘It attracts the people that are more likely to be involved with drugs. Young people who are maybe between jobs and are bored are much more likely to be involved with that sort of thing.

‘And gigs attract those sort of young people.

‘But Dreamland has been a great thing for Margate too.’

Jane Smith, 41, runs the Olympia café in the Kent seaside hotspot.

She said: ‘Kids will do whatever they want.

‘But they should have separate teenager and adult events so security knows what to do and how on it to be.

‘I’ve been to gigs up there. I went to go see Madness in Dreamland recently and it was a good time but people were smoking weed and that – it’s not right that kids should be around that.’

Amanda Harris, 51, and Poppy Preston, 49, visit Margate from their homes in Essex and London for gigs and holiday jaunts.

They denied that drug use had increased as a result of the influx of so-called DFLs.

Perhaps people have rose-tinted glasses on because Margate has always been a pretty rough area.

It was said, ‘Since Londoners moved down.’ Londoners have been visiting and retired to Margate since the dawn of time.

Margate lacks industry, has a history of drug abuse, and poor jobs, and is not trendy.

Margate is no different from any other town in that it has always been like this, with its positive and negative points.