Confessions of drug addicts. Confessions of a drug addict: I found out what hell is
After getting rid of a severe form of addiction, a former drug addict believes she was born a second time
What is hell, Oksana did not learn from books. She visited there during her lifetime, she felt all the trials intended for sinners with her body and soul. Once upon a time, she was ready to give her life for a dose of opium. Now, when she escaped from a terrible captivity, she does everything to pull others out of a dangerous trap.
Oksana is 42 years old. I felt the taste of real life, without the admixture of drugs and alcohol, 16 years ago. She has been leading an absolutely sober lifestyle, without “breakdowns”, for 12 years now and is sure that nothing will make her return to the past.
The first time a dope girl learned at the age of 15. The best student, school activist, secretary of the Komsomol committee ... Oksana's father often looked into the glass, her mother was a respectable, strict woman who controlled every step of the children. Outwardly, the daughter embodied her ideal. She received good grades, at the time set by her mother “like a bayonet” she was at home ... She was predicted a higher party school, but the period of growing up began just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the youth lost their inner core. Oksana recalls how she constantly felt empty, believed that everyone around was lying. The girl was looking for...
In those days, they were just starting to talk about drugs. The forbidden fruit attracts, so I wanted to try something new, get different sensations. I sniffed glue, drank alcohol ... I washed down sleeping pills with beer. I could sleep for several days. She married early and had two daughters. But in a few years, the marriage was destroyed by the lack of money of the nineties. The husband went to Oksana's friend, who sold sweet tubes at the market: at that time she was a wealthy woman. The young wife was left alone with small children in her arms. Sometimes she fainted from hunger. He remembers how the nurse came and asked: “Why don’t you bring your children for vaccination?”. Oksana was ashamed to admit that there was not even soap to wash them properly before visiting the clinic.
In those difficult times, I met an old acquaintance with whom I once visited a dance studio. A friend began to visit Oksana from time to time. First - drink water, then - boil poppy straw. Often, Oksana pulled the girl's hand when she needed to prick. Soon she offered a business to a single mother: drug addicts would pay her for allowing her to cook and use the “magic potion” in her kitchen. Then she began to trade in poppy straw. The woman had money, she no longer needed it. Since there was always a “potion” in the apartment, I used it from time to time. Such an injection relieved a hangover. It seemed to Oksana that if she tried several times, she would not become a drug addict, because she is a strong personality. More than once I saw to what state familiar drug addicts reach. The body rots alive, limbs have to be cut off. “What kind of thrill is this, for which a person is ready to get rid of his legs?” thought Oksana. And when I tried it myself, I understood. He says that this is a state and a surge of vitality that cannot be compared with anything. She went to the bazaar as if she were going to work: she stole things, then looked for buyers for them, she tried to use the proceeds “for their intended purpose” as soon as possible ... The woman quickly sank to the very bottom, but did not feel it for a long time. For months I didn’t bathe, I didn’t leave the house. At home there was a brothel in which her children grew up. I wanted to buy summer shoes, but it turned out that it was winter outside ... I was horrified when I finally saw myself in the mirror: sunken cheeks, dirty hair, yellow skin. Instead of teeth - a few rotten stumps.
The worst state that had to be experienced in life is withdrawal, which drug addicts call "Kumar". According to Oksana, it can be compared with a severe form of the flu. A runny nose, lacrimation, diarrhea, insomnia appear ... Oksana had the impression that her teeth, skin and even hair ached, she did not have the strength to get out of bed. The woman knew that the next dose would deprive her of all these sufferings, and the realization that there was no saving opium caused hysteria.
After six years of life outside of reality, Oksana was "brought down to earth" by the doorbell. The police were standing at the door. Then I realized that going to jail is the worst prospect. I called my sister, who lived in another city, and begged for shelter.
In a new place, Oksana had to “tie up” with drugs. She knew that drug addicts betray each other to the police, so she did not risk making new needle friends. Fear did not leave her, so she replaced the opium with vodka. I found an alcoholic roommate and got drunk with him until I passed out. Her sister took her from various brothels. The woman recalls that she often woke up next to strangers and could not remember who they were. It happened that she fell asleep in a kiosk, which she robbed. I wanted to quit, but I couldn't stop drinking. Again I had to go through withdrawal, during which I was shaking like in a fever. Most of all I wanted to get well, but there was no money for treatment. A friend advised her to visit Alcoholics Anonymous. “I am ready to go even to the green with blue dots. The main thing is for someone to help change my life, ”the exhausted woman was delighted. When I came to the community, I was amazed. So many people who find themselves in the same difficult circumstances, and everyone is ready to lend a helping hand! She brought her husband, who also now stopped drinking. Subsequently, she joined the Narcotics Anonymous group.
Now Oksana is proud of herself - she was able to overcome both drug addiction and the green snake. During the first year, she had three alcohol and one drug relapses. For the last six years, she has not been “pulled”.
The woman completely changed her life. She and her husband have a full-fledged family: they amuse their grandchildren together. Oksana recently graduated from the Faculty of Psychology and works as a practicing psychologist. “Now I am a full-fledged member of society,” the woman says. “I work part-time as a mother for those who ended up in the same hell where I was!”. Oksana gives lectures to parents of drug addicts. Refers addicts to rehabilitation centers, provides them with social support and helps them to recover in society. She claims that she doesn’t need any “dopings” now, because she has learned to live and have fun sober.
Larisa Poprotskaya
The problem of drug addiction in Kazakhstan is acquiring terrifying proportions. Getting out of this vicious circle is difficult, but possible. Former drug addicts told the correspondent about their past - how they went through all the circles of drug hell.
In the village of Razdolnoye, Akmola region, there has been a Center for the Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts for 11 years. Over the years of its operation, 681 patients received care here. Now the Center contains 20 people - 4 girls and 16 guys.
Here, former drug addicts work, communicate, talk with psychologists. The Center has a garden, animals, outbuildings. Patients live here for one year.
“You can think that there was a company, and I took to try the drug. It was, but that doesn't excuse me. I took heroin myself,” says Viktor P. from Karaganda, a patient at the Center. – I started taking heroin in my third year at KarSU. I took it for four months, then everything opened up. We sat at the table with my family and had dinner. I reached for bread. The sleeve slipped, and the sister saw the marks from the needle. Grabbing my wrist, she began to ask what it was. Somehow I justified myself. But my parents began to suspect - I always have no money, I constantly spend everything.
Once the relatives understood everything. It was a terrible grief for the parents. They gathered a council, and I myself suggested: I take an academy, I leave for the army. I served in Kapchagay for two years, and then for another three years as a contract soldier. For five years I was absolutely “clean”. But he still underestimated the power of heroin. Even on the train, when I was returning home, memories began to come to me. Thoughts, they are like crows overhead. I couldn't drive them away. I began to revel in the memories of the buzz, savor them. When he stood on the platform, he was already ready to inject himself.
I come home in uniform, with flowers, my mother opens the door, my father hugs me, and I think: “I need to go to the “pit” and inject myself as soon as possible!” Ate and took heroin. I fell into hell. Vicious circle: drugs and narcology. Doctors will remove the withdrawal symptoms, I’m “clean” for two or three months, and then I’ll prick again and off we go.”
Victor is looking for the causes of addiction in the past.
“Since childhood, I have not been deprived of the love of my parents. Do not think that drug addicts are asocial from childhood. I have a complete family, I have a sister, we were loved and tried to give everything, brought up well. I grew up in the 90s, so my parents did their best to keep us from starving. As children, we had a lot of free time. We met in the basements. And from somewhere in my mind the idea was established: “In life, you have to try everything.” Now I know how wrong I was.
Alcohol, cigarettes and nasvay became the catalyst for my drug addiction. In a club, a gateway, a basement, a friend's apartment, they can offer ecstasy, wheels, and some other psychoactive drugs. Try it - it will live in you. I tried the drug and, as they say, hit. At the initial stage, I did not understand the seriousness of this. And if I knew then what I was getting into, then I say, hand on heart - I would not even stand next to drugs. After all, my parents told me, as your mothers tell you now: “Vitya, this is bad, you can’t take drugs.” And I answered: "I know everything." But he didn't know anything!
Now Victor feels well, he has restored relations with his parents, his girlfriend is waiting for him.
“Now my whole gut is against drugs. That's enough, I'm stuck," he says.
But Victor still "cheaply" got off. Some have gone through hell, literally.
The story of Artem S. is shocking. A young blue-eyed guy went through a terrible school of life, and yet he survived. He was already in two rehabilitation centers - in the Kostanay region and in Russia.
"I am twenty seven years old. I am a former drug addict with nine years of heroin use. But it all started much earlier. I got into drugs at the age of 12. At first I started smoking marijuana. It seemed to be a prank. Then a friend suggested heroin. The first time I didn't like him. And then there was interest, I took it once or twice a month. Then he himself did not notice when he "climbed the dose." For 9 years I had remissions for six months to a year. And broke down again. Because of the drugs, I lost everything. I have no respect for relatives, a loved one, friends, goals in life, favorite work.
On the hands of the guy - transverse scars. Artem told their story.
“I have had several suicide attempts. So I tried to manipulate. My parents didn't give me money for drugs, and I said I would cut my hands if I didn't get them. They refused. And then I opened my veins.
Looking back, Artyom sees only graves.
“During the time that I am here, four people died, with whom we injected together. Another is in a "vegetable" state after an overdose. I myself have experienced 6 overdoses and 6 clinical deaths. The last one was literally a few weeks before arrival.
I had remissions thanks to sports. He helps me stay off drugs. A special help in my life is religion. The first two weeks of stay at the Center almost ended in a breakdown. When I started asking God for help, I felt better and stopped thinking about drugs. We go to church every Sunday."
Recently Artem had a birthday, his mother visited him. The guy restores relations with his parents.
“I feel so sorry for her. My mother always warned me against drugs. I was such a fool, I lost so many years of my life, the best years of my youth. Now it will be difficult for me to get an education.”
The Center also works with co-dependent parents. Can they get their child out of drug hell?
“No one will help a drug addict, except him,” local patients themselves say. - Plant a hundred psychologists - they can not do anything. Mom's tears, wife's pleas, children's crying will not help. Only myself. Relatives and friends can become a motivation, but they will not pull you out of the pit of drug addiction. Drug addicts are lonely people, they are social outcasts. They need support."
Now about 107 people who were previously treated at the Center are in remission. Many of them have started families and are raising children. Sometimes they come here for the holidays, talk with psychologists. And each of them hopes that they will never come here as a patient again.
This expression has not yet lost its relevance, although it can be heard less and less in everyday life. Much more often it is replaced by the word "prostitute". But this is not entirely correct, since a fallen woman is not only a priestess of love. Today you will find out to whom such an appeal applies, what it means.
There is a difference
In Europe, a fallen woman is a drug addict, an immigrant, a victim of violence. But if we turn to Russian history, then such an epithet was "awarded" mainly to ladies who were not particularly picky in choosing sexual partners. Moreover, it could be a woman who had several official marriages. In Soviet times, this was condemned by both the party and the people. A real communist had to get married once and carry this cross all her life, even if the marriage was not very successful. Artists were an exception: they could be forgiven for some frivolity in this matter, since creative people are different from the general population.
Bible
The first mention of harlot women in the Old Testament is of an interesting nature. The daughter of Jacob was traveling in foreign lands and attracted the attention of the son of the prince of Shechem. He dishonored Dina, but later asked for the girl's hand from her father. The unfortunate brothers reacted sharply and declared that their sister was not a harlot to do this to her. Consent to the marriage was obtained, but the prince had to agree: all the men in the city were circumcised.
Jesus Christ spoke about the fact that harlots go ahead of everyone into the Kingdom of God. Another fallen woman is Tamar. The girl who sold her services for a kid. Rembrandt even captured this scene in a painting. It is known that the ancient Israeli society even guarded harlots, but the ministers of the churches were forbidden to take them as spouses.
walking woman
As a rule, this is a lady who is not bound by marriage and regularly changes men. It is free from obligations and unburdened by moral values. Can we call her a fallen woman? It depends on the society in which this person rotates. If she is on the bottom rung of social strata, then such an expression may be applicable. But to call a pop star or a famous actress that way, no one will turn their tongue. Although there is no particular difference in behavior between them, but the colossal gap in terms of social status changes everything. A walking woman can be both a legal spouse and a mother of a large family. It all depends on the character and upbringing of the woman.
You don't have to be a prostitute to get such an offensive nickname. Girls who grew up in dysfunctional families often have a weak concept of morality. Before their eyes, such scenes took place that by the time they mature, they do not consider it necessary to look for a permanent partner. They do not take money for their services, they simply give their body to everyone who shows interest.
The result of such a life is addiction to alcohol or drug addiction. Then from a simple frivolous person the girl turns into a full-fledged prostitute. For a dose or a bottle, she is ready to trade the body, but now it is already considered work, and not a means for obtaining pleasure. Among the outcasts, there are plenty of such persons: in any brothel there is such a fallen woman who provides her intimate services in exchange for the right drug.
Escorts
These ladies can also be called fallen, but they stand at the highest level. They also sell their bodies, but not to the hucksters or the working class, but to the wealthiest men. Moreover, there are cases when such elite prostitutes became the wives of their clients. But still, in most cases, they remain only girls who can accompany them to any event and provide intimate services. Their work is paid very highly, but money cannot wash away the stigma of a fallen woman, which they will bear for the rest of their lives. They are also considered girls with low social responsibility, although they can drive prime-class cars at the same time.
Prostitutes
Prostitution is the biggest niche in which every woman is considered fallen. Although this is one of the oldest professions, it is still considered the most shameful. Prostitutes are not respected, they have no rights. For their hard and thankless work, they can get a term. This profession has no age. Girls as young as 14 as well as women over 60 can be prostitutes.
Why do girls become prostitutes?
It would seem that there are no advantages at all from this way of earning, and there are more and more fallen women! Selling your body on the street drives both need and lack of demand. Often, after graduating from university, girls cannot find work. This is especially true for those who come from small towns and villages. There is no desire to return to the wilderness, and it is very difficult to get settled in the metropolis. The girl decides to earn some money with her own body until she has a chance to find a real good job. However, few succeed in breaking out of the vicious circle.
For those who are unfortunate, who failed the exams, the road to confusion becomes even shorter. They stay in a strange city in the hope of trying their luck in a year. Without a profession and a livelihood, girls are forced to go to the bar.
Need and more
The average mother of several children can also become a fallen woman. An unemployed husband, lack of help from relatives and many other factors can push this desperate step. Sometimes such ladies have official work, and at night they earn extra money by prostitution. Relatives and friends may not even know about her additional income.
Some are attracted to this type of income. Girls think that this is the easiest way to get rich. But the real picture is far from being as colorful as inexperienced debutantes paint it. A pimp and the police, problems with the law and health, lack of personal life - this is not the whole list of what awaits a fallen woman.
Why girls with addiction become prostitutes, we have already explained. But very often, ladies acquire addictions already in the process of work, in order to look at life easier and easier to endure moral torment. Then the life of a prostitute becomes like a carousel: the search for a dose, the client, again the search for a dose. The existence of a fallen woman is unenviable, no matter what level she is.
Every year in Russia about 30 thousand people die from drug use, mostly young people.
“We are horrified. They go to the cemetery every day. The second wave started in 2005, and mostly children and teenagers. How can it be? After all, they saw how a whole generation fell into the ground before their eyes. It's like the war is over. They played in the sandbox, and next to us we shot, writhed, ”says Anton. 10 years ago, by an effort of will from a syringe of tears, he stopped being a bandit, came to God and started saving lost souls. He lives in a small Siberian mining town. He asked not to give his name, surname and city: they would kill him.
“There were gangs, crimson jackets, it was fashionable to inject. We are rotten. Now they are burning. Before the consumer went to the drug, now the drug has come to the consumer. The system has been debugged, ”says Anton, who escaped and saves others from death.
“The risk group is children. Parents drink, children inject, there are no prospects, no one needs these people. But their grandfathers and fathers were heroes of labor, honored people. And now they are no longer needed. Somehow survived the 90s, many got back on their feet. But since 2001, a new wave has begun, other drugs that no longer give a chance to survive. A year or two - and a corpse, - continues Anton. “There is no state plan, as if the main thing is to sit quietly and die, so that there are no riots.”
As the righteous said, save yourself - and thousands will be saved around. Fate led Anton to the Protestants. In his small town alone, they have already created 10 centers for the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Their experience is simple and comes down to very simple methods: work, faith and the shoulder of a comrade save. Money and expensive clinics, substitution funds and conversations with psychologists do not save, but simply postpone the punishment.
According to Anton, they have two supply channels in the city. One is held by a native of Tajikistan, the other is a gypsy. Both have dozens of points in each district, their own cars, their own “runners”-peddlers, their own system of dose orders via SMS. Around the clock, without weekends and lunch breaks.
“I sent a message - in half an hour the goods were delivered to you. If the dose is taken by taxi - 300 re, if you stamp your feet - 150 re. Two doses are needed per day for beginners, three for those who are already hooked. — Anton and his comrades know by name everyone who carries, trades, distributes and sells.
“A political decision will be made - everything will be liquidated in one day. And now there is no policy towards drug addicts, no effective centers, no methods of treatment. Here, for example, they will cover everyone, and drug addicts will take to the streets. What should they do with these crowds? And so the authorities think that they somehow control the situation, create a certain balance, ”says Anton.
The capital is for the rich
Trouble in numbers*
Every day, 82 people die from heroin use in the country, and 30,000 people die every year.
The average age of drug addicts, according to official statistics, is 29.8 years, and the age group of 18-20 years old accounts for 7%. Young people take drugs from the age of 15-17, and already in the first year, 70% bring the dose to three injections a day.
64% of drug addicts tried to get rid of addiction on their own. Only 5% of addicted women and 7% of men were not treated and did not want it.
25% of treated citizens come for treatment again in the same year. 95-97% of drug addicts start taking drugs again in the same year.
Polls of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) on drug use show that 35% of drug addicts stay for one week after free treatment, 17% for a month, and only 4% for one or two years. A third of those who received assistance assessed it as unsatisfactory, cruel and humiliating.
At the February hearings on this issue in the State Duma, the director of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov said that Russia annually receives 12 tons of pure heroin from Afghanistan. His department believes that this is 3 billion single doses of 0.004 grams, but if we count 0.1 grams as such (according to the law), then 120 million single doses are obtained. According to the Federal Drug Control Service, the drug mafia receives about $ 16 billion from the sale of such a quantity of drugs.
Viktor Ivanov reported that the Federal Drug Control Service seizes 10 kg of heroin every day, that is, about a third of the heroin traffic.
In the report of the United Nations Committee on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for 2007, the income of the entire Afghan drug economy was estimated at $3 billion, and the volume of supplies was 6.1 thousand tons in 2006 and 8.2 thousand tons in 2007.
*According to the UN, Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Health and Social Development, VCIOM
“I give prices for Moscow and St. Petersburg,” dictates Sasha, a young guy who categorically did not want to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, that is, he did not want to try. He hates drugs and wants to eradicate them in the bud. He also asks to change the name: “A gram of hashish in Moscow is 600 rubles, in St. Petersburg - 250. An ecstasy tablet is 600 rubles and 350. Amphetamine powder is 1200 and 600. 1 gram of cocaine is $120 and about $90, this is enough for one person for a night. A drop of LSD - 700-800 and 450-500. Heroin is not respected by young people in the capitals, they are afraid of it and consider it an expensive and unclean drug. Also mushrooms - they are collected by everyone who wants to, at the end of August and in September.
He believes that most of the poison comes to Moscow from St. Petersburg. The most expensive ones are brought from Europe. There are fewer Asian streams here. Two of his friends are in jail for distribution. "And thank God!" his comrades exhale in chorus, pouring out knowledge of Moscow's attractive bottom.
“Few young people in Moscow use every day. So, on weekends, for relaxation - it's fashionable. It is not fashionable to condemn, this is such an attitude,” say yesterday's schoolchildren.
According to our interlocutors, the police make money on such “holidays”. “If they find you, then you either carry the amount from 5 thousand to 55 thousand rubles, or sit down. They can also toss. What parent wouldn't buy out? He does not know that his son grows hemp in the closet or brews something for sale, ”that's what these children know.
The smartest of them guessed that a big industry was throwing a net at them. “In that club they play one music - it is suitable for amphetamines, in this one - another, for ecstasy, in the third - for rich cocaine addicts. Everything is done to control the youth. Dropped in and it's fine. They can mix it with alcohol and treat them to free drinks. If someone overdoses, the club is shut down, but soon it will open somewhere else. Capitals are afraid of heroin, they have enough pills. It's fashionable; pills collect, show off. But after all, fashion is created for the drug style, everything is thought out for the sake of manipulating people, the guys don’t want to understand this, ”says the guy who does not use anything.
They offered him from childhood to smoke, sniff. Friends, prosperous children from good families, cooked pilaf with “nonsense”. He was lucky that he was not hungry then: they did not warn about the contents of the pilaf.
The elder brother of one of the guys recalls: “About 15 years ago, we were walking with friends, a boy flew up, he was shaking all over. Inject, he says, I don’t get into a vein. We went to the entrance, I immediately hit him in the vein. And then the police come in. The drug addict has disappeared, the syringe is lying around with my prints. I lied to them that the guy had diabetes, a crisis, here are the witnesses. If I were alone, they wouldn’t even talk to me, they would increase the disclosure statistics, or they would pull money. ”
How many drug addicts do we have?
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, from 1996 to the present, the level of non-medical drug use has increased 20 times, and the number of people under dispensary supervision is 538 thousand people.
Drug consumption in Russia is growing by 20-30% annually.
The proportion of Russian heroin addicts is five to eight times higher than the corresponding figure in the EU countries.
“There are no reliable statistics for our country, because no one counts drug addicts in Russia,” says Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Tatyana Dmitrieva, director of the State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry. V.P. Serbian. - The figure of 538 thousand people is underestimated. We believe that it should be multiplied by at least five, and only then will we approach some reliable figure.
The most pessimistic estimates speak of 6 million Russian drug addicts - these are the assumptions of a number of public organizations. In Russia, cases of drug use by ten-year-old children have already been registered: 17,370 children and 122,175 adolescent drug addicts have been registered.
According to various estimates, a drug addict puts an average of 15-17 more people on the needle every year.
Drug addicts are killed not only by an overdose. About 80% of HIV-infected people became infected through a shared needle.
networks
Who are the lowest echelons of the merchants of death? The siloviki say that these people do not differ in appearance from others.
Most anti-drug activists in Siberia and the west of the country accuse Tajiks and Roma of drug distribution. Recently, negroes were tried who were carrying a potion from Holland.
Thanks to the media, society is sure that drugs are brought to Russia by planes, trains, trucks with fruits and goods, they are transported by shuttles on themselves, "swallowers" in their stomachs and other craftsmen. It is them that the security forces catch, it is these stories that the public sees on TV.
As a rule, there are no drug addicts among the distributors; drugs are a business for them.
But there is also a gigantic network of distributors who cannot be imprisoned: they are ordinary pharmacy sellers. And there is a huge stream of potion that no one seizes or counts: it is prepared from ordinary medicines.
"Wheel Syrups"
Pharmacological lawlessness began in the capital a few years ago, when the state drug control really started working in Moscow and it became a little more difficult to get heroin.
Today, some pharmacies, mostly remote from the center, without much hiding, dispense opiate analgesics without a prescription, such as butorphanol tartrate (an opioid analgesic), zaldiar (it contains opiates and is extremely dangerous when administered intravenously, but it costs only 500 rubles), coaxil (tianeptine) - a powerful antidepressant, the abuse of which provokes chemical dependence, imovan (zopiclone) and other drugs.
Control agencies periodically check pharmacies. It happens that they find significant stocks of these drugs and at most 20 prescriptions in two or three years. But pharmacists and owners of pharmacies do not face serious responsibility: in extreme cases, they are deprived of their license. Some metropolitan pharmacy kiosks, according to the Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), make up to $300,000 a month on one butorphanol. With such turnover, apparently, the issue with the license can be resolved.
According to pharmacy sales, the aforementioned drugs are among the most purchased in Russia. Some of them are constantly present in the top ten most popular drugs.
“Proven pharmacies have actually turned into points of illegal sale of prescription drugs that are very popular among people with drug addiction,” said Nikolai Yurgel, head of Roszdravnadzor, last winter.
Drug addicts of all ages call prescription drugs or potions based on them "crocodiles" or "wheel syrup". The likely consequence of their use for just a few months is gangrene, as a result, amputation of limbs and death within a year of use. "Wheel syrup" leads to death faster than "old" drugs.
As drug addicts say, the pills are brought to "chemists" - specialists in the preparation of drugs from a surrogate. A couple of hours are enough, for example, to evaporate the solution and get a "syrup". In microdistricts, such "chemists" are usually known by the whole district - a crowd of drug addicts comes to them day and night, it is easy to cover their business. But for some reason nobody does it.
In most pharmacies, employees do not risk violating the rules for dispensing drugs included in the "narcotic" lists and lists of psychostimulants, as this entails criminal liability. But barbiturates, sedatives and painkillers are easily sold without prescriptions.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Tatyana Dmitrieva noted that the use of legal medications by drug addicts, for example, cough syrups and tablets, is becoming more and more popular, and the age of those using such drugs has decreased to 12-13 years.
Can a drug addict be cured?
In Russia, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Development, there are 191 state drug dispensaries, about 2,000 drug addiction prevention and treatment rooms, and 80 rehabilitation rooms. However, they are inefficient. This is what both doctors and their patients say.
There are private rehabilitation centers. On the website of the Marshak Clinic in Moscow, rates for a five-day treatment start at 100,000 rubles. In order to be treated, one has to pay the cost of an apartment, although recovery in them is not guaranteed.
Psychologists complain that the old narcologists actually still refer to drug addiction as a "stupid thing" that you can get rid of if you want. “Don’t inject, that’s all,” they say, not recognizing that the patient’s personal growth is needed, referring to drug addict support groups as religious sects.
Among private narcologists, there are many who find a couple of patients for themselves and successfully “milk” them, just regularly taking them out of withdrawal. It's their drug business. Until recently, psychiatrists used electric shock for therapeutic purposes - some clients lost touch with reality. Expensive clinics offer everything at prices ranging from $2,000 to $3,000 or more: saunas, massages, yoga, spinal cleansing, blood purification, special diets, body wraps, and sea baths.
There are more than 350 charitable centers in the country, organized mostly with the support of religious organizations. Most of them are organized by Protestants. There are also centers created by Orthodox activists.
For example, in the New Life charitable treatment and rehabilitation center of Sergei Matevosyan (Leningrad Region), they sign an agreement with a newcomer: he enters here for a year. If relatives can help with money - well, if they can’t, it’s also normal. Don't smoke or drink for a year, it's hard to work from morning to evening on the farm. Thanks to the fruits of this work, the center exists and, according to its statistics, more than half of drug addicts are cured for a long time. There is a queue from all over the country to Matevosyan.
There is an opinion that treatment is better and more successful in the West, that they use methadone as a drug replacement. “We are called to set up centers in America. And here we are told how well they treat there. Yes, there anyone who decides to arrange such a center receives a shaft of charitable assistance, state support, preferences in everything. We, on the contrary, are tortured with checks. But only we treat with occupational therapy, meager diet, ascetic life, and it works,” says Sergey Matevosyan.
“A German drug addict is invited to a cafe, treated to coffee, given methadone. Then he comes again. They give him an analysis - if he does not inject himself with heroin, he is again given methadone. And the rest of the time, no one needs him, go die,” says pastor Mikhail from a center in the Kemerovo region.
The methadone issue has been a subject of controversy for a long time. By and large, the technology is designed for hopeless patients, but it saves society from the spread of infections.
12 steps
“Many people don’t understand that treatment of the body is only part of the problem in narcology,” says Tatiana Trifolovskaya, a psychotherapist at the Moscow Scientific and Practical Center for Narcology, “and addiction treatment also requires treatment of the soul, change in society and a lot of work in the family.”
Trifolovskaya considers only the world-famous 12-step program to be effective. By participating in it, 5 million drug addicts live a normal life in the world.
At metro stations in the capital, among the crowd, you don't recognize people from self-help groups for anonymous drug addicts, but they exist. They are waiting there for those who have begun to have an attack of cravings for the drug. Such groups are created everywhere (there are more than a dozen of them in the capital) by the participants of the 12 Steps program.
Narcotics Anonymous works under a program that appeared by analogy with the one that was created in the United States in the 1930s to help alcoholics.
Its essence boils down to the recognition of the fact that a person alone is powerless to cope with the problem of drug addiction or alcoholism, and therefore he needs help to recover, which means radically changing his life. In the group, all its members are anonymous, including in contacts with the media. Everyone has a curator - a volunteer from those who live a "clean" life for at least a year. The 12 Steps is not affiliated with the church by charter, although there are also religious groups.
Narcotics Anonymous believe that the family often aggravates the trouble: it pays the debts of the addict, controls the use of drugs, but the more the addict is protected from the truth of his situation, the less chances he has to begin to recover (in this, by the way, church centers are in full solidarity with these activists) .
Drug addicts come to the 12 Steps, as a rule, having already lost their studies, jobs and the trust of their loved ones, they are powerless in the face of the disease and, having recognized this, they find support from people with the same problems, but who already have experience in solving them, as well as professional help from consultants and psychologists, help from relatives and other sources of help. All this is built into a clearly structured system of long, sometimes many years of support.
They learn how to organize safety measures, for example, avoid communication with active drug addicts, acquire the skills of a “clean” life lost over the years of using “dope”, learn to recognize and adequately express their feelings, and prevent the development of breakdowns.
Help seeking skills are practiced at Narcotics Anonymous meetings, attendance at which is included in the basic three-month course.
Classes are held for mixed groups of patients and relatives, joint sports competitions, holidays, discos, saunas and fishing.
The basic setting of rehabilitation is that drug addiction is almost forever. Treatment is always only voluntary, based on the informed consent of the patient.
Religious activists have doubts about the 12 Steps because they consider this circle to be closed. The group does not lead a person anywhere, sooner or later he will get tired of this circle. For example, Orthodox and Protestants not only try to lead to recovery, but also introduce former drug addicts to healthy people, involve them in a big cause that is not only related to the cause of saving drug addicts.
“If the soul, enslaved by evil, wants to free itself, it must fill itself with new meaning. The meaning for the soul is to become a part of a great and real work. Otherwise, everything is in vain,” says Olga M., who traveled to various centers, first in search of a cure, and then to exchange experience.
Roots
To fight a phenomenon, you need to understand its nature. There are three concepts. The first one boils down to the fact that immigrants from Central Asia, the Afghans, are to blame for the dominance of drugs. The second insists on some abstract corruption of officials. The third says that drugs are the weapons of Western intelligence agencies against Russia. All three would be fine if drugs were rampant only in Russia.
Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili last week received from FSKN director Viktor Ivanov a list of his country's top officials involved in drug trafficking. This list was first made public by the American television channel ABC News in June 2006, when secret Pentagon documents on US Afghan allies were made public.
But the UN annually and openly talks about more complex ties.
Thus, the report of the UN Committee on Drugs and Crime for 2007 explicitly states that NATO troops are prohibited from touching opium fields. In January 2008, the head of this committee, Antonio Maria Costa, gave a vivid example. To convert 1 ton of raw opium into heroin, 2-6 tons of acetic anhydride is needed, which is not produced in Afghanistan. In 2005 alone, 10 thousand tons of anhydride were imported, that is, a caravan of 500 20-ton trailers entered the country. NATO did not notice these machines and did not ask why so much vinegar.
The Afghan Ministry of Combating Drug Trafficking told a Gazeta correspondent two years ago that the Afghans would not be able to overcome the problem alone. After all, 2-3.2 million Afghans grow poppies, that is, approximately one in ten of the 25 million population. They and their families would die if the poppies were burned. Afghan officers showed covert footage of plantations guarded by foreign soldiers, scenes of loading onto foreign planes.
Since 2006, unsuccessful negotiations have been underway to open a representative office of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation in Kabul. Afghanistan has not yet received any real help in the fight against drugs from any country.
According to the estimates of the state drug control, approximately 30% of the crop goes from Afghanistan to Russia via the northern route through the transparent borders of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. In Kyrgyzstan, while the American base was operating there, a plan for the industrial scale of poppy crops was seriously discussed.
Why is it impossible to defeat the entire network with such awareness of the world's special services about the state of affairs? After all, the secret services know how to track down spies or secret organizations. Why was it possible to find out about 400 chemical laboratories on the border of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but not to destroy them? Why is it easy to buy all the equipment for growing cannabis on the Internet? Why do young people know where the potion is sold, but the security forces do not?
The simplest answer suggests itself: apparently, the secret services are not interested in covering up drug trafficking, since it is an inexhaustible source of black money. This issue has been explored by many former CIA and MI6 employees, using the actions of Albanian and Kurdish drug couriers, the Colombian drug cartel and the Asian opium "golden triangle" as examples.
Not a single intelligence service in the world has ever admitted that it is powerless against drug trafficking.
The most famous example of planting drug trafficking is the opium wars that Britain waged against China in 1840-1860. Britain wanted to import and distribute opium banned in China from Bengal. The Chinese burned warehouses, arrested consumers - and the war began. China lost, paid a huge indemnity, gave up Hong Kong, and the British got the right to trade in opium. China's population has declined from 416 million to 50 million in 40 years.
In the 60s of the XX century, the FBI developed and introduced a drug network into the ranks of the Black Panthers when they were considered dangerous to the United States. In the 1970s, drug couriers were sent to Indian reservations, where a strong liberation movement developed. Until now, in Indian reservations, hard pressure has been applied to any offenders, except for alcohol dealers and drug couriers.
Only a few countries have been able to defeat drugs in history.
The USSR coped with drug addiction until 1991, although there were both marijuana and opium plantations on its territory. Managed to overcome the drugs of communist China - executions and tough politics.
The Taliban government easily coped with this misfortune, which is now not liked to be remembered in Afghanistan. According to a UN report, the Taliban drastically reduced poppy cultivation to 185 tons per year, and in 2000-2001 they practically eliminated them.
Iran is also fighting drug trafficking. Before the Islamic revolution in 1979, European hippies made drug pilgrimages to Iran. In 1989, the death penalty was introduced in Iran for the distribution of drugs. Most of the 300 or so annual executions in Iran that outrage human rights activists are executions of drug traffickers. Iran has fortified the border with Afghanistan, and its border guards are engaged in real battles and the systematic shooting of heroin caravans.
For Western states, such measures are unacceptable. In Europe, drugs are legalized and doses are dispensed in pharmacies. Do we still have time to choose a "special" path?
There are few former drug addicts: most of them die before the age of forty, unable to return to reality after the next "arrival". Even fewer are those who, having managed to quit, agree to talk about their past. A resident of Molodechno, 35-year-old Mikhail Pilst is an exception to the rule: having jumped off the needle, he began to lecture at schools, talking without cuts about the deaths of friends and terrible breakdowns.
Spice is worse than heroin
- I started early: in the fourth grade I smoked, in the fifth - I drank. Then he began to sniff gasoline. There were no problems getting it. We approached the tankers and asked with a pitiful face: “Uncle, my moped has stalled around the corner, pour a liter into a plastic bottle.”
Then he switched to drugs. There was everything in my life: nasvay, which was bought without any problems in the rows with spices at Komarovka, and ecstasy, after which we, like energizer bunnies, could dance all day long, from the night disco immediately going to the morning one. Like all peers, they were looking forward to summer: not to swim and ride a bike, but because in the summer you can collect milk from poppies and brew the drug yourself without overpaying for a dose. Many lament the ban on growing poppies in their plots, saying that grandmothers don't even have anything to add to the pie. But I know what plantations these grandmothers sometimes grew for sale.
Thank God that in my time there was no spice - this is the most terrible drug. Familiar heroin addicts decided to try what it was, and as a result flushed it down the toilet: “Misha, we couldn’t smoke it: it’s a complete brain drain!”
The peculiarity of spice is such that it is impossible to guess the dosage: sometimes you smoke a whole handful and you don’t “insert”, and sometimes one pinch turns out to be fatal. Spice so darkens the mind that all taboos are erased. For example, in all my years of drug addiction, I have not taken a single thing out of my parent's apartment. And the spice cancels all prohibitions: under its action, you can beat your parents, gouge out your eyes, jump out the window. This is scary.
From breaking climb on the wall
- On the day of my twentieth birthday, I made myself a “gift” - for the first time I injected myself intravenously. When a drug addict injects many times in the same place, this is called a “road”. I still have a scar in its place. Not everyone injects into the elbow bend: some "widen" into the thigh, others - between the fingers. So the clean skin of the hands of a teenager, without bruises and injection marks, still does not say anything.
All drugs are taken for the “high” – the first adrenaline rush, which can be compared to jumping from an airplane: it becomes hot inside, a lot of energy is released. But this is too short a moment to endure the pangs of withdrawal later.
I experienced my first breakdown at a party: I was sitting on a friend’s couch, watching TV, and suddenly I felt my joints begin to twist in my arms, as if from a severe cold. Gradually, this feeling passes to the whole body: the person writhes, as if breaking him from the inside. If you do not take the dose quickly, withdrawal can be so strong that people literally climb the wall. At such moments, it does not matter what and how to use. I remember how, having nothing to inject, we walked through the porches, found a syringe from a previous drug addict, sharpened the needle on glass and used it in turn. I still wonder how I didn't catch anything. But my friend was less fortunate: he has HIV.
When giving lectures to schoolchildren, I give this example: when choosing a new phone, you always study its characteristics, weigh the pros and cons. But why, when reading rave reviews about "comings" and unearthly buzz, people do not even try to learn about the other side of the drug. But these are torments, pain, terrible diseases and broken destinies.
I was sober only when I was sleeping
My peak was at 24 years old. During that period, I was relatively sober only when I was sleeping. There were thoughts of committing suicide, especially since there was nothing much to lose: there were debts all around, there was no work, friends turned their backs. A friend of mine suggested that I go to church. I came to the service, listened to the singing of the choir - and suddenly there was a revolution in my soul, I felt that I could cope with everything. I know it sounds like a fairy tale, but after two weeks I was off drugs, and after a month I even gave up cigarettes.
Life gradually began to return to a peaceful course. An acquaintance, having learned that I was in the eyeballs, offered a good job - to make PVC windows. I got married and have three healthy sons. And there was also a need to do good: I help orphans, participate in round tables on the topic of drug addiction, give lectures at schools, and volunteer at a rehabilitation center in Vileyka, where young girls are treated for addiction.
Many people ask: why do you stir up the past? You are not afraid that because of your sincerity, acquaintances will turn away from you, there will be problems with work - who needs to deal with a former drug addict? But I want to save as many people as possible from the hell that I experienced. I hope that some schoolboy, having recognized me on the street, will not hesitate to come up with a question, and I will be able to save him.
Mikhail Pilst and his wife Anastasia are raising three sons
Advice from Mikhail Pilst
Children should have a dream
Parents should be alert to any changes in the behavior of the child: he wore bright T-shirts - he switched to black long-sleeved sweaters. Was cheerful - became gloomy. All his life he loved his mother's borscht and grandmother's pies - but now he cannot stand them (under the influence of drugs, taste preferences also change). A student may have many “circles” and “electives”. “Mom, I have two extra maths after school today” - what parent would not be delighted with such zeal! And then it turns out that there are no special stages, and at this time the child is sniffing glue in the basement.
If suspicions about drugs are confirmed, the child should never be scolded. You should carry on a conversation, becoming one step with him, or even lower: “Forgive me for being busy all the time. I am guilty before you. I see that you have problems: let's solve them together” – this is the only way you can get through.
From childhood, a person should have a dream, even if it is unrealizable - to become an Olympic champion, an astronaut, a billionaire. This desire should not be ridiculed, on the contrary, it must be approved, nourished. In the name of a dream, it will be easier for a son or daughter to give up temptations.
Victoria KRUPENKOVA, ZN,
photo by Yulia SHABLOVSKAYA
