More on drug abuse

I actually found this article, written by a Dutch journalist/ photographer quite at random, but it links very closely back to a previous post I made, on heroin abuse in Russia. The author documents in short the lifestyles of a few sorry young addicts, as well as those involved in their treatment. One of the amazing things is the degree to which some people seem to carry on with semi-normal lives, only dragged down by their habit; one user is a former psychology student who speaks fluent English and works as a manager for a pro-methadone campaigning organisation. There is some insight into peoples’ arguments for and against methodone clinics and needle exchange programmes, both of which are currently not in action in Russia. It makes for some shocking reading; some of the users have been addicted to home-made heroin substitutes since the age of twelve or thirteen, and one interviewee, severely disabled at the age of 28, is HIV positive and lives in a retirement home. The article also contains some interesting statistics: for example that in 1997, 5 percent of the population of St Petersburg (or in other words around 200,000 people) were hard drug users!