According to the Campo de Gibraltar drugs association ‘Alternativas’ the financial crisis is having its effect on consumption.Cocaine is being shunned in favour of heroin – so says data from the Spanish government and National Police – Guardia Civil sources.
Apparently cocaine was becoming a more popular drug but the street price means its popularity is falling. I guess the fact that it is traditional that you snort it through a tube created from a bank note doesn’t help in an economic crisis.
Francisco Mena, president of ‘Alternativas’ told my esteemed colleague Brian Reyes at the Gibraltar Chronicle that the trend of switching from cocaine to heroin is causing deep concern because it is regarded as one of the most addictive and damaging narcotics.
Heroin has always horrified me because I could never understand how somebody could stick a needle in their arm for kicks. However it appears that I’m old school as heroin is now in tablet or snorting form.
There are those of us who have been tempted by drugs because they are a social buzz in the same way as alcohol – so cocaine, hashish and various pills are passed around the dining table or taken in clubs.
However there is also the very different reality of the habitual drug users, who live in poor conditions, have no work, no stable family environment, no hope – just hopelessness - where the daily high comes from the end of a needle.
This is not a hidden society. If you live in the Campo de Gibraltar it stares you in the face in the slums of La Línea and Algeciras and the poor homes of every town and village.
Crack users are in every community but for them there’s very little ‘craic’ to be enjoyed!
(For some interesting blogs on drugs visit Brian Reyes Gibraltar Newsletter at the links section).
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