Memoir: Reducing harm from drug-addiction in Tver

MLA Essay Heading

Drug dependence means that a person needs a drug to function normally. Abruptly stopping the drug leads to withdrawal symptoms. Drug addiction is the compulsive use of a substance, despite its negative or dangerous effects.

I practically lived all his life in the city of Tver and I love my city. What is he like? What is this city? In short, Tver is the regional center, located near Moscow, with a population of around half a million people. It is an old city with a long history. It's a major industrial center. Its overview can be easily found on the Internet, books and other sources, and if I will continue to develop this theme, then I can easily go to the glorification of Tver. I'll tell you better about the situation that prevailed in Tver in 2000-2005. It is only natural that I will turn the reader's attention to the drug situation in Tver, as I am the addict.

In the late 90-ies, Tver developed an area so-called "open narkostsena. This was the area in the private sector of the city, where gypsies lived in huge crowd, who almost openly traded drugs (such as marijuana, ready solution poppy, and heroin). What was happening at the time is hard to describe in words. People, who confronted such phenomena, will probably understand all the "charm" of the area. Dirt pile on roadsides, narcotic crowd behind, other crowds such as drug addicts roaming the streets in hope of taking drugs. There were people who built houses for themselves and bought cars by the money from drug sales, dressed in bright expensive outfits. Periodically there were different types of raids (from the riot police to private security service) who meet the massive raid on narcotics to deprive them of illegal money and plan their detention. A little later, they also went to see the Gypsies to collect money from them. I genuinely felt sorry for people who've lived in this area. It was the quintessence of all the bad - dirt, deception, cruelty, misery, degradation. It even seems redundant to talk about the HIV situation in this environment.

Around this period I first learned about "harm reduction". I did not know what it is and did not have any idea what it involved. I saw strange people standing around the specific points near roadside that handed out new syringes, some pamphlets, and simply communicated with cruising by pedestrian. My fellow addict Roma always had to keep me conscious so that I could remain out of the drug influence.

Time passed as it flies being unnoticed and did not bring much different days. They remain in memory in the form of short events and normal gloomy flashes, such as death of a friend in my apartment due to over dosage, serious fight with riots, leading to convictions and other similar events in the difficult freaky existence.

Years passed and brought some changes, Roma went out of the city, and there ...