Open drug use in Athens
Rising Death in the Streets of Athens: The Human Toll of the Greek Tragedy
Posted: 07/01/2013 00:00
In one of the most frequented streets of the Greek capital, Nikos*, 35, lies in a dirty blanket. Besides him, 40-year-old Yannis* prepares a mix of cheap heroin and sedatives known in the streets as ‘thai’ costing between five and seven euros per fix. With trembling hands Yannis shoots up ‘thai’ in his inner forearm. Families with children, young couples and migrants pass by, but no one cares what they are seeing.
“I either have to buy needles on the streets or share one after rinsing it with water,” says Nikos. “Pharmacies used to provide needles for a small fee or free of charge, but this has changed over the last two-three years.”
“Five to four years ago, it was easier to get needles. Now it’s getting tough,” says Dimitris*, a 50 year old heroin addict. “I earn my fix by selling syringes for one euro. Sometimes I sell them for 30 to 40 cents, sometimes for ten.”
Needles and syringes are distributed in Athens mainly through outreach workers who provide ‘kits’ containing needles, syringes, and other drug preparation equipment, along with condoms to users, free of charge. In 2011, there were about 120,000 syringes distributed according to ECDC data. This is approximately 15 syringes per user per year, still very low to an average of 200 syringes per user recommended by the World Health Organization as a measure to contain HIV epidemic.
“The situation is alarming as we have passed from four to five HIV infections among IDUs per year, to more than 500 in less than two years”, warns Marianela Kloka, director of Positive Voice, an Athens-based NGO working against the spread of HIV, adding that Greece has never had harm reduction policies in place.
“Budget cuts have worsened an already existing problem. Needle exchange programmes have never been adequate and there was a total lack of coordination among the different organizations engaged in harm reduction. Now that the financial crisis has changed the pattern of drug use and IDUs inject cheaper drugs several times per day, the need of greater needle coverage is urgent”, she adds.
Drug trade with impunity
The financial crisis has changed the type of drugs available in the Greek drug market that has adapted fast to the changing economic reality. ‘Thai’ and cocaine became the main drugs traded while locally produced crystal meth or ‘sisa’ is traded in specific areas of the city center.
A fix is sold in the shape of a tiny ball weighing no more than 0.01 of a gram forcing users to buy eight to ten shots per day to support their habit. As a result the profit for the dealers remains high, despite the low price of the fix, as each fix costs five to seven euro, depending on the kind of drug.
Drug trade in Athens downtown is well structured and is taking place around the historic centre and the surrounding neighborhoods. The areas are divided into ‘drug zones’ belonging to different criminal groups each one trading specific kind of drugs.
Undocumented immigrants mainly from sub-Saharan and north Africa are ‘recruited’ by local mafia and pushed into the illegal drug market, often as a way to pay off their trafficking fees.
Such is the case of Raymon*, 35, from Somalia, who entered Greece illegally after a 40 day perilous journey to reach the EU nation. After arriving along the Turkish coast, he was asked to jump in a rubber boat together with ten other men.
“We arrived on a rocky shore and the driver (of the boat) left us there. We asked a man where we were. ‘This is Greece’. We were happy; we were in Europe”.
After spending two days on the island of Lesvos, Raymon was brought by a fellow man in the port of Piraeus. He was immediately recruited to sell heroin in Victoria square, a central spot in downtown Athens, as a way to pay off his trafficking fees. Today Raymon is homeless and addicted to heroin himself. He no longer works for the network and has taken to begging on the streets to survive. He claims that the illegal drug trade is protected by corrupted police officials who inform local mafia on police raids and make sure that those arrested are released.
“Drug trade is divided in different zones with each one having its own police protection. In my area, a police lieutenant known as ‘Father’ was our focal point. He was making sure that police will not bother us”, he says.
Raymon claims that ‘Father’ had provided him with the personal number of a police officer at the local police department in Athens downtown, whom he could call in case of arrest. “In less than 20 minute I was back in the streets”, he says. Greek police, when asked to comment on the claims of police officers involved in drug related crimes, declined to answer.
Cases of corruption are not rare in Greek police forces. In November, a criminal network of 67 people involved in drug and arm trafficking on the island of Crete was dislocated by Greek authorities. Among those arrested were three police officers, two of them lieutenants that were acting as informants for the network. In early December, Greek authorities arrested seven more police officers that are allegedly part of a criminal drug trade network in mainland Greece.
There is a sense of abandon, when walking in downtown Athens today. Open drug use within a view of the nation’s parliament, an alarming surge in HIV infections and a total collapse of the health system and all safety nets are signs of a society that its priorities are out of balance.
Meanwhile, down on the streets, there is a feeling that Greece is unraveling as a modern state.
*Names have changed to protect identities.
Read morehttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/fragkiska-megaloudi/rising-death-in-the-streets-of-athens_b_2411003.html#s1946738
Nobody spent two years, undercover….this report is part of a research that has started two years ago (and is still ongoing) dealing with the consequences of the financial crisis in Greece. Vulnerable groups such as people with addictions that we deal with here, were teh hardest hit. We were in daily contact with those people. spending time with them, they knew exactly who we were and they gave us their comcent for the photos. Everything happened in day light, nothing to hide, nothing undercover. If you live in the city center as you say, then you must be very familiar with those images, otherwise you probably don’t live in Athens at all.
I wonder which big oil company has interest in spreading propaganda on the deplorable situation in Athens downtown and teh rise of HIV in Greece… Fragkiska Megaloudi
I wonder which big oil company has interest in spreading propaganda on the deplorable situation in Athens downtown and teh rise of HIV in Greece… Fragkiska Megaloudi
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