DRUGS-SPAIN: “Narco-Parlours” for Junkies

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, Nov 24 1999 (IPS) - Illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin permeate the economic and social environment of Spain, where “narco-parlours” will be opened in the capital to provide a safe setting for junkies to shoot up, and to supply heroin to the most diehard addicts.

Traces of cocaine are found on seven of every 10 bills in Spain, reported Gonzalo Robles, the government delegate for the National anti-Drugs Plan. And one of three youngsters have smoked “porros”, as marijuana cigarettes are known in Spain.

This data is merely an illustration of a problem that affects a cross-section of society, and which led the parliament of the Autonomous Community of Madrid to unanimously vote in favour of the opening of venues to keep addicts away from drug dealers.

The creation of “narco-parlours” was backed by all three political forces represented in the Madrid Assembly (parliament): the centre-right governing Popular Party (PP), the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), and the United Left (IU).

The “narco-parlours”, which form part of a Damage Reduction Programme, will provide heroin to (mainly homeless) hardcore addicts who have relapsed each time they underwent treatment.

But any junkie will be welcome in the narco-parlours, where they can shoot up in hygienic conditions rather than in back alleys, ravines or empty lots. The majority will have to bring their own drugs, however, which will be inspected to determine whether they have been adulterated.

The quantity of each “fix” will not be controlled, said PP Health spokesman Javier Rodríguez.

“It takes 24 hours to carry out a quantitative analysis, which is an unthinkable wait for an addict,” said the manager of the Anti-Drug Agency of the Community of Madrid, José Cabrera.

One of the locales will be set up in a town on the outskirts of Madrid. The other will be a mobile unit, free to travel wherever it is needed most.

The PSOE and some members of the IU wanted heroin to be made available to all addicts at the narco-parlours, in order to put drug dealers out of business, but that initiative was blocked. Nevertheless, they described the new ordinance as an important step forward.

Spain’s bills are “the least contaminated” in the European Union, said Robles, who pointed out that traces of cocaine were detected on 90 percent of all notes in circulation in Great Britain, and on 80 percent in Germany and France.

Traces of cocaine not only reach the money from the hands of drug users, but also from contact with other bills – emblematic of how drug trafficking penetrates the financial and economic scene, said the government delegate for the National anti-Drugs Plan.

The problem is especially serious in financial circles where drug money is laundered.

In early November, Iranian national Longnman Ghodsi, a local resident, was arrested in Madrid with 201 kgs of heroin.

The arrest was considered the biggest drug trafficking arrest ever in Spain, although official sources admitted that Ghodsi was merely a mid-level flunky of organised crime. The kingpins were not caught.

Local news coverage of the drug trade focuses on consumers and small-time dealers. One story that made headlines Tuesday was the death of a so-called “bolero” – named for the “bolas” or balls of cocaine smuggled inside his body.

According to the initial forensic reports, the unidentified man around the age of 30 died Saturday when he suffocated from a 13- gram ball of cocaine found in his trachea.

The “bolero’s” body was found Monday in the Madrid district of Arganzuela, with his abdomen slit all the way open – he was cut open by someone attempting to recuperate the rest of the drugs, said the police.