Local gear produced by Dublin runner (4)
I believe the answer is:
drug
'local gear' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'dublin runner' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'runner' could be 'r' (abbreviation) and 'r' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dug' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'produced by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for drug that I've seen before include "Item of medicine or a narcotic" , "Medical or narcotic substance" , "may be soft or hard" , "Chemical medicament" , "Medicinal substance" .)