The drug addicts should be listened to as the other members of our community. I´m very happy to have Johnny posting this on our blog:
Many people seems to have an idea about what is best for the drug addicts. What do you know about our situation? You are just conserned about the problem we cause for yourself, your nice and perfect life, pritty neighbourhood and your kids. Let me tell you, we don’t want this life, many of us have struggled hard to get sober and free from the drug, but the system that is supposed to help is not working properly. When you start to get motivated for treatment, you have to wait too long before you can get an offer. When you get out of prisson there is no support that can stop you from going back to your old drug friends. Of course it is a problem with the needles in the park and we don’t want it to be like this. Give us an injection room, and give those who want, an easier way to Metadon treatment. This is what we need!
Johnny from „Needle Hill“
Photo: Davic
Injection room is no solution!
We in the Christian Democratic Party (CDP)have followed the discussion about the our drug abusers at the „Needle Hill“ with interests and surprise. It seems that the authorities and Daniela Otte in the RSP have lost their belief in human being being able to recover from drug addiction. The CDP do not believe in establishing injection rooms as a solution for these people. What is needed is treatment and to help these people to get rid of their addiction. More and better institutions for treatment of drug addiction is what we will fight for during the following years.
Injection rooms will not solve the problem these people have in their effort to overcome their addiction.
Emma Toft, CDP
Mr.Backer in the Park neighbour committee is addressing a serious problem in our park, which we in the Radical Socialist Party(RSP)would like to address when we come into power after the election. There is no dignity in the life of these people, having to do their injection in front of people walking through the park. The large amount of overdose cases and even death as result of that is a medical problem. To give the drug abusers a safer place to do their injections and to reduce the number of new comers to this problematic milleue we suggest to build injection rooms where the drug abusers can do their injections in a clean place with medical care nearby. This will as we see it reduse the problems for the neighbours to our park and give a much better and absolute needed health care offer to the drug users.
D. Otte, leader of the local RSP
The leader of the Park neighbour commitee Mr. Backer, is upset about the situation seen in the park. As representative for the Police we can understand this and also the frustration of nothing beeing done with the problem caused by the drug abusers.
The Police force has made a priority to arrest drugdealers and to hinder newcomers to get into the mileue, but as Mr. Backer writes, this has not been very successful.
The Police has made contact with the health autorities and we hope to come to a solution, but yet we don’t know what are the best to do. We do not believe in splitting up this group of people, because then we will loose the kind of control we have today. We have also seen the negative results when the police splitted up the drug milleue in our Capitol, this just transfered the problems to more areas.
Drug abuse is a health problem that has to be solved by the health autorities.
R.Potter, chief of the local police district
The Park neighbour organisation demand changes in the park.
As representative for the neighbours living next to the „needle hill“ I will explain what problems we experience every day because of the drug abusers using the park as thier area for distribution and injections of drugs. Unfortunately they do not only use the park as an area, but we also find their needles in our gardens, or they sometimes use our staircase for setting their injections. It is scaring and it makes us feel afraid. We see many youngsters in the park together with the „old“ users, and we think it is terrible that so many newcomers are recruited into the abuser group. Many of us are thinking of moving to another area, but we do not think that we who is not doing anything wrong should do this. The police should take some action and split up this mileue instead. There will soon be an election and I challenge the political parties in our city to come forward and give a statement about how they are going to deal with this situation in future.
Mr. Bruno Carreras, leader of the Park neighbour committee.
Don’t discuss – do something!
As mother to small children growing up in this area, I’m really worried about their future, but also about what can happen when they are playing in the park. Too much garbage is floating around espessially the needles from the drug users. What can happen if our children step on these or even start to play with these because they do not know better!!?? When will we see the first HIV positive result of this among our children. I do challenge our authorities in this Park City to do something with this problem. For me who has to walk through this park to come to the play ground for my children I have to see men with their trousers on their knees setting their injections! It is embarrising!
To our police, health autorities, politiciens I say: Stop talking – do something!!!!
Mary, mother to two small kids