Pubdate: Sat, 27 Jul 2002
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Andrew Osborn of the Guardian

EXPENSIVE OSLO IS CHEAP FIX CAPITAL

In a Country Where Drugs Cost Less Than Alcohol, Heroin Addiction Is 
Causing Growing Alarm To Norwegian Authorities

Oslo- Its standard of living was officially recognised this week as the 
best money can buy but oil-rich Norway has a darker, less publicised claim 
to fame: Oslo has become Europe's drug overdose capital and is awash with 
heroin.

The city is infamously expensive. A pint of beer will set you back UKP 5, a 
pack of cigarettes UKP 5.50 and even a Big Mac costs close to UKP 3. 
Heroin, however, is relatively cheap-one tenth of a gram costs about the 
same as 20 Marlboro.

The drug's relative affordability - it has halved in price in the last 
decade - has seen thousands of ordinary Norwegians develop a habit with 
fatal consequences. Every fifth autopsy carried out by the city coroner now 
reaches the same depressing conclusion: death by drug overdose.

Oslo has the record of drug related deaths out of 42 European cities, 
according to a report by the Council of Europe's Pompidou Group, set up in 
1971 to study drug abuse and trafficking.

Some 338 Norwegians died from drug overdoses last year (114 of them in 
Oslo) compared with just 75 in 1990. The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol 
and Drug Research estimates that the number of intravenous users has 
doubled in the last decade to 14,000.

Norway, experts agree, is in the grip of a heroin epidemic.

These statistics contrast sharply with the picture painted by the United 
Nations human development report this week which for the second year 
running concluded that life expectancy, education and healthcare in Norway 
was better than anywhere else.

One explanation for the high death rate is the injecting culture. "Contrary 
to many other countries Norwegian drug addicts inject themselves with 
heroin rather than smoke it," says Ketil Bentzen, deputy director general 
at the ministry of social affairs. "Nor do they take it on its own. They 
mix it with pills such as Rohypnol and alcohol and that's deadly."

"A number of deaths also occur after people are discharged from 
institutions such as prisons," he adds. "After Iceland we have the highest 
number of residential treatment facilities in the world."

Despite the fact that possession, use and trafficking of drugs is illegal 
and punishable by a maximum prison term of 21 years, the drug scene in Oslo 
is startlingly open.

A hotdog kiosk, a stone's throw from Oslo central station, is the focal 
point for addicts and pushers. It stands next to a bus and a tram stop and 
at first glance the crowds of people look like they are waiting for public 
transport.

But the buses come and go and the people, who whisper to one another and 
draw deeply on roll-up cigarettes, stay. There are between 100 and 150 
addicts hanging around the kiosk at any given time, closely observed by 
police surveillance cameras. An estimated 500 to 600 people visit the kiosk 
every day.

The addicts, whose emaciated faces poke from hooded tops or sweatshirts, 
look like the tortured Norwegians painted by Edvard Munch. Their eye 
sockets are large and lifeless and they reek of desperation.

"It's like something out of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables," says Trym 
Skarra, a city council social worker on standby to deal with overdoses.

His colleague, Anja Helland, adds: "Most of them started when they were 
young at between 12 and 15. Beer is so expensive here that it's cheaper to 
buy drugs. We have people who overdose almost every day. It's suicide."

According to Knut Reinaas of the League against Intoxicants, addicts are 
injecting themselves with bigger doses and more frequently - up to 10 times 
per day.

Christer, a 32-year-old speed dealer who has been abusing drugs since the 
age of 12 and whose wrists and arms are punctured with needle scars, is 
typical of many. He uses heroin, speed, Rohypnol and hashish, knows the 
risks but doesn't care.

"My friend died of an overdose two days ago. He had just got out of 
prison," he mumbles. "Of course I'm worried. I've had 20 overdoses myself 
but this is my happiness and it's better to die than lead this fucking life."

A police station sits on the same square as the kiosk - Christian Frederiks 
Plass - but its occupants leave the addicts to their own devices for the 
most part.

A small park on the square is littered with the paraphernalia of drug 
addiction; spoons for heating heroin and silver foil for packing it, but 
the real action takes place at Oslo's docks.

Behind a corrugated iron building, which used to be a terminal for ferries 
to Denmark, lies Oslo's most infamous shooting gallery.

The scene is stark. One man stretches out while another thrusts a needle 
into his neck and scores of addicts lie on the ground, savouring their hit. 
A tinny stereo blares out as the junkies inject one another before 
collapsing. They pay little attention to passers-by and the ground is 
strewn with used syringes.

The government is so concerned, says Mr Bentzen, that it is drafting an 
emergency action plan to present to parliament in October.

Tova Boygard, who helps to hand out some of the 1.8m syringes distributed 
free every year, says all kinds of Norwegians are doing heroin now.

"We get all kinds of people aged 18 to 80, including people in suits who 
you'd never suspect," she says. "Maybe it's something to do with the 
Norwegian mentality. We have a reputation that we like to drink and overdo 
it and maybe it's the same with drugs."

Mr Bentzen is philosophical about the future. "It's not difficult to detox 
an addict," he muses. "The real challenge is to find something with which 
to replace their addiction and the government is unable to distribute the 
meaning of life."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart