– It’s completely wild. Everyone takes them and everyone should have them, says a young man whom news meets in the open drug scene in central Oslo. He is thinking of the pills Xalol which are highly addictive and are sold on the illegal market. The man, who does not want to show his face, is in his 20s and has been taking drugs since his early teens. Although he is young, he has extensive experience in the environment. – I almost grew up here, he says, although he is neither from Oslo nor lives in the city. Like many of the others who seek out the heavy drug environment, he lives in one of the smaller towns outside Oslo and travels into the center of the capital several times a week. The man in his 20s lives in a small town not far from Oslo. He visits the heavy drug environment in central Oslo several times a week. Photo: Marit Sirum-Eikre / news – There are very few people from Oslo right here, he says. He says that people like to come from far away and visit the drug scene twice a week – and buy a tray of pills each time. – They come and go. – Why do people come here from other municipalities? – It is easy. Anyone can come here. You can come in the middle of the day and buy exactly what you want. In other places it is not like that. – It’s not like that in Drøbak, for example, that you can just walk down the street, and there are 50 people standing there asking if you want ecstasy, heroin or something else. It is an open drug market. It’s like going to a market and buying fruit. You don’t need to know anyone. – Everyone can hide Another man with a tray of pills between his hands believes it is easy to be anonymous in the capital. – Oslo is a city where everyone can hide, he says in a typical western dialect. Nor will this man show his face. He is in his 40s and comes from a small village in Western Norway. It has been 26 years since he started getting high. The tray of pills he has bought is enough for a couple of days. He takes seven pills every day. The addictive pills Ksalol are easily available in the open drug scene in the center of Oslo. Photo: Hallgeir Aunan / news – Why do so many drug addicts come to Oslo? – Here there are cheaper and better goods than other places in the country. He also believes that the easy access to drugs is an important reason. – Getting into a drug environment in small places is quite difficult. It’s easier here, he says. Many come from outside the city Up to half of the users in the heaviest drug environment in Oslo come from other places, according to the Outdoor Section in the municipality. The city council in Oslo wants to distribute user equipment and better help in the districts. The outdoor section in Oslo municipality conducts outreach activities in the drug environment in the capital. Last year they registered people from 140 different municipalities in these environments. – A large proportion of those we meet are from out of town. Most come from nearby municipalities, but there are also people from the rest of the country, all from Tromsø, Alta and Stavanger. That’s what Bernt Kristiansen, team leader in the Outdoor Section in Oslo Municipality, says. Bernt Kristiansen, team leader of the outdoor section of Oslo municipality, believes that more municipalities must give addicts access to clean user equipment. Photo: Hallgeir Aunan / news – What proportion of those who are here would you say come from other places now? – Around a third of those we have contact with. At most, it can be up to 50 per cent who are from outside the city, but it is perhaps around 30-40 per cent in this environment. – Has there been a development? – So far this year, we see that there are more out-of-towners in the environment in and around Storgata in central Oslo. – Why are so many people coming now? – Summer is a time when many people come. It is primarily about the fact that the weather is warmer and thus much easier to be outside and stay here over time. – What must other municipalities do? – I think that they should focus more on low-threshold offers such as the distribution of user equipment in their immediate surroundings to this target group and focus more on damage reduction work. He wants overdose prevention measures locally and believes that users must have access to clean equipment and be given the opportunity to check what they are putting into their home municipality. – Worn-out services It is primarily the low-threshold services such as the emergency room and the police that notice that many drug addicts are coming to Oslo from the districts, says Usman Mushtaq, city councilor for work, integration and social services. Usman Mushtaq, city councilor for work, integration and social services in Oslo municipality. Photo: Hallgeir Aunan / news – We find that our services are stretched thin because we have to make offers to many more people than is intended for in Oslo. Although he believes it is natural that many people seek out the capital, he is worried. – Our emergency services are overloaded, he says. He believes other municipalities must contribute more. A used syringe on the street in central Oslo. Photo: Hallgeir Aunan / news – I would like to see more done to create good services for people who have problems with drugs in our neighboring municipalities. – What were they supposed to do? – They can, for example, build user rooms and create low-threshold offers, places to stay. It helps, says Mushtaq. – A national problem The large, open drug environments in the center of Oslo are much more than a local phenomenon, the Outdoor Section believes. – It is a national problem that Oslo cannot or will not solve alone, says head of the Foreign Affairs Section, Børge Erdal. He believes that a concentration of special measures in the center of Oslo, as it is today, can contribute to intensifying the problems. – Therefore, the services in Oslo should be decentralized to regional, robust low-threshold services, he says.
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This pill makes people travel miles to buy on the street – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
