Friday, January 18, 2008
Chance encounters: The heroin zone
I had heard that Bilbao had a bit of a drug problem... but I thought that 'drug problem' meant that a lot of people spend a lot of time smoking marijuana. I don't see that as a 'problem' as such. People are pretty open about it and it's just normal here. Well, it doesn't really bother me, anyhow!
And if people go out and take a few drugs at night clubs, that doesn't really bother me, either. Doesn't effect me in any way. And I think it's pretty harmless... on Monday, these people go back to work/school and it doesn't really come with more cost to society than, say, alcohol consumption.
But I never saw anyone shoot up until today. And yes. That bothered me.
I was in a mood to explore, and I decided to walk home from the swimming pool in atxuri on the 'other' side of the river (the side behind the market building), and I gazed down to the foot of the bridge to see a needle being pulled out of someone's arm. And then blood flying all over the place.
I couldn't resist taking a picture from a distance... so here it is:
But it's too far away to tell what is happening. By the time I was where I took the picture, the same hand that held the syringe was wiping away blood from his friends' arm. Directly above them (on the right as viewed in this picture) is pretty much where I saw the blood fly.
I walked a little bit further, and found some used syringe packets on the stairs. Well... at least they are responsible heroine users?? I guess at least there is a community help centre for the
users. Which is a positive thing.
But really... the thing that really struck me was the gentleness with the man pulled the syringe from his friend's arm. And the care with which he folded the arm and wiped away the blood as his friend started tripping away. That was striking. I'm always amazed to find human kindness in the most unlikely of places. There really isn't much that destroys the human capacity to love.
fon @ 10:26 PM link to post * *