Prague is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating capitals of Europe, a treasure chest of history and culture, an unmissable tourist destination, capable of leaving visitors breathless.
But if we took off our tourist clothes for a moment and looked more carefully at the social reality of which the city is made up, all the beauty of the place would be contaminated by a sad fact.
Both in the most remote corners and in the streets of the centre, it is not difficult to come across people under the influence of drugs.
An army of invisibles, trudging through a crowd that avoids them, completely, or almost indifferently.
Drug addiction, in the Czech Republic, takes on the face of a plague rather than a problem. The most widespread and easiest drug to obtain, as this country is the largest exporter in Europe, is certainly methamphetamine.
Methamphetamine is the most consumed synthetic stimulant drug in the world and the latest data indicate a constant expansion of the market in the European Union.
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of methamphetamine seizures in the EU more than doubled (from 3,000 to 6,200), while the quantities seized increased by 477% to 2.2 tonnes in 2020.
Of the 60 cities with data on methamphetamine residues in municipal wastewater for 2021 and 2022, 39 reported an increase, 6 reported a stable situation, and 15 reported a decrease.
The 3 cities with the highest loads are all located in the Czech Republic.
Due in part to a past as the Eastern Bloc’s center for pharmaceutical production and because in that period it was in operation near Prague is one of the main ephedrine factories in the world (substance with which methamphetamine is produced), this country has the largest methamphetamine problem of any European country, also being its largest supplier and with nearly 90% of illicit labs dismantled in ‘EU every year are Czechs.
David is an invisible, a drug addict.
In his pocket he keeps his treasure: a syringe ready to shoot a dose of methamphetamine in his favorite place, a grove away from prying eyes. Anticipating the high, which is less and less, faster and more unsatisfying, he sets off wandering among the people.
Passing by parked cars, he looks to see if there are any objects he can steal.
David is an expert, his drug addiction has lasted for over 20 years. He has recently been released from prison, where he had ended up for theft and assault. He has no other way to get by.
In a park near the Sananim association, which helps people with addiction problems, Michael talks about his addiction and makes a list of the substances he has been addicted to and talks about them as if they were old friends he cares about holds a bit of a grudge, but ultimately remain friends.
A short distance away, Jarda, with his brother David and his girlfriend Iveta already have the syringes and everything needed to inject what for many is a one-way ticket into a vein.
It often happens that the last dose is the one too many.For everyone else, it is a journey towards nowhere, towards a dimension of emptiness that lasts just long enough to want to leave again.
An eternal return.
David recently got out of prison. In prison he was “clean”, but when he got out he fell back into drugs.
After all, most of the people he hangs out with are drug addicts.
He currently can’t find work, perhaps he isn’t even looking for one.He lives in a squat together with other drug addicts.
“I love sport and I would really like to be able to change my life but to be honest I don’t think there can be a way out of this situation”.
While these words come out of David’s mouth, brother Jarda’s eyes seem to be covered by a veil of sadness and when he starts to cry, Iveta hugs him.
The two bodies seem to fuse to form an armour.
Both are on a waiting list to enter a rehabilitation program. Their goal is to get clean and regain custody of their 7-month-old daughter Isabela.
They start talking about it after two doses each.They look at the photos.
They circle the room like caged animals, waiting for the drug to take effect.
A ritual performed day after day, for months, years.
But it’s always the same every time. The needle in the arm, the frantic wait for the first effects. And then it begins: Jarda gets agitated, has mood swings.One moment she is happy, she talks about Isabela, makes plans for the future.
The next moment he becomes sad, angry, and takes it out on her girlfriend.
Iveta became pregnant she didn’t realize it right away and she continued to use drugs for the first 3 months of pregnancy.
Isabela was born with problems: amphetamine also entered her little body.
Iveta’s was an existence marked by violence: she has always had violent boyfriends and was in prison for a period.
Those of drug addicts are lives balanced between falling towards the precipice and rare glimmers of hope. She lives on the edge of legality, with the constant risk of losing human relationships and with a deafening emptiness in her soul.
Drug addiction is often treated as a problem to be hidden but wouldn’t it be more correct to address it as a structural fact of our society?
The demonization implemented by society condemns drug addicts to clandestinity and pushes them towards practices with a high risk to their lives, where drugs are consumed in the dark, surrounded by an aura of shame and without the possibility of controls on quality and dosages.
It is not easy for an addict to ask for help. It is not easy for those who are not drug addicts to give help and put aside pity.
In all of this, the cry of people like Michael, Jarda, David and Iveta remains a silent scream.
