– The reason it’s called crack is that it sounds like you’re frying bacon when you cook it. A crooked smile spreads across a tired face. The facial expression reveals a mouth without teeth. The man is one of several drug addicts who have gathered in the park by Kulturkirken Jakob, at the end of Torggata in central Oslo. – I can show you how to cook it and smoke it, he continues. A stone’s throw away is a bottle of salmiak. The substance many drug addicts in Oslo now use to boil cocaine into crack. The crack rush gives you a real kick, says a user in his 50s. But the intoxication also affects memory and mood. – You get angry and irritated when you don’t get it. Photo: Håkon Benjaminsen / news The heavier drug environments in the city center are no longer confined to the congested streets Storgata and Urtegata. They have spread out. – It seems that crack has taken over the entire urban environment, says a woman who supports herself on crutches. She says she has lost 25 kilos since she started smoking crack. – You can’t get food. Yes, you’re fading away, she says. Crack in the user’s room Norway now ranks third in cocaine intake in Europe. Oslo is Norway’s cocaine capital. Last year, the police seized a record amount of the drug, at the same time that its use by young people is increasing. The cocaine has also taken over the smoking room at the Prindsen reception centre. For now, many of the users smoke the substance as crack. Christina Livgard has worked at the Prindsen reception center for over 15 years. She says they have seen crack use moving upwards in Europe. Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / news The municipality distributes leaflets with instructions on how to make crack with bicarbonate. Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / news Bicarbonate is distributed together with pipes to users who will smoke crack inside the user room. Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / news Christina Livgard is a subject specialist at the reception, which is run by Oslo municipality. She says they have been calling out warnings for several months. – It is of great concern. It is also new for the users of our offer. So we sit and watch it happen now, she says. The salmiak that many on the streets use to make crack is harmful to both the eyes, the skin and the lungs. The municipality would rather have users prepare the crack in baking soda, inside the reception centre. Since October 2023, they have therefore distributed recipes, small bags of baking soda and pipes. Livgard is not afraid that this could lead to more users. – Damage reduction is not contagious. This is about an approach to something that is already there. We can’t make it hip to use the user room, no matter if we tried. Coop at Grønlandsleiret has removed salmiak from the shelves, because the bottles are disappearing. Employees at Prindsen Reception Center believe the bottles have been used to cook crack. Photo: Irlinn Mortensen / Prindsen Reception Center After the crack took over the reception, conflicts have arisen more often in the user room. New users have flowed in. And the crack makes the users aggressive, so that they often misunderstand each other. – There are several different people, with different backgrounds. Whereas before it was unpredictable, now it is highly unpredictable. IN THE SMOKING ROOM: Christina Livgard with a crack pipe in her hand. The smoking room was previously only used for smoking heroin, but now people smoke crack here more and more often. Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / news – Completely new in Norway – Most people use cocaine in powder form, while those with great challenges turn it into crack, says Arild Knutsen. The organization’s leader stands outside the Association for Humane Drug Policy (FHN)’s offices in Torggata. He has also seen that use has increased sharply in the heavier drug environments over the past year. He often sees people smoking the drug openly in broad daylight, right in the city centre. Like the municipality, they have started handing out user equipment. CONCERNED: Arild Knutsen is concerned about crack use in Oslo. This leads to several violent conflicts, both among the users and those who sell, he believes. Photo: Håkon Benjaminsen / news Knutsen believes that what is happening now is completely new in Norway and Oslo: The market is completely flooded with cocaine. It is more readily available, cheaper and stronger than before. At the same time, the availability of heroin varies and the quality is lower. Therefore, many people now choose to smoke cocaine rather than crack. Crack Crack is a stimulant drug and a pure, crystallized form of cocaine. The effect of smoking is much stronger than when sniffing cocaine. So is the risk of developing addiction. The intoxication gives a feeling of increased energy, attention and alertness, but can also lead to, among other things, anxiety and aggressive behaviour, hallucinations and acute psychosis. The substance can also cause breathing difficulties, heart attacks, brain haemorrhage, brain damage, epileptic seizures and heart rhythm disturbances. Crack use became widespread from the 1980s, especially in the USA, but has never before been widespread in Norway. Source: Store norske lexikon and Rusinfo.no But the cocaine addiction, and especially the crack addiction, is short. – People get withdrawal very quickly and become desperate to get hold of more. This has led to more conflicts and more violence in and around drug environments on the streets. “The white strip” in Oslo Knutsen stops at Youngstorget and looks up at the government quarter. – Here begins the white strip of cocaine sales, he says and points. Stripa has previously been mentioned in Aftenposten. It goes over Youngstorget, beyond Storgata and through the entire Grønlandsleiret. The streets in the middle of the strip form a crystallized strip. – There is crack. That’s where the heaviest users are. Here, some of the dealers sell finished crack. The open drug environment in Storgata, which formerly housed the most heroin users, is in the middle of the strip. Morten Passerud has been part of the environment since he was 12 years old. He describes the conditions in Storgata as “insane”. Morten Passerud says Storgata has become the street where he feels least safe in Oslo. He often witnesses violent conflicts. Photo: Håkon Benjaminsen He sees people smoking crack daily. – To see that development, as it is today. It’s nitrite, says the 51-year-old. He no longer dares to go here when it is dark. – There has been a massive development in walking with knives. There are guns down here. And knives of all sizes. WARNING: Arild Knutsen is concerned about the increased supply of cocaine to Oslo. He believes it will lead to an increase in organized crime and violence. Photo: Håkon Benjaminsen / news Knutsen in FHN is also concerned about the violence crack and cocaine bring to Oslo. According to Kripos, a cocaine tsunami is about to hit us from abroad. It is smuggled directly from South America to the Norwegian coast. The supply is the basis for a growing illegal economy and strengthens the criminal networks. Networks that cynically recruit minors, according to Kripos. There are reports of a spread of crack in various environments in Oslo, the police write to news. They write that they patrol more often in the areas where there are drug sales, such as in Storgata. – We see that it is accompanied by a number of disturbances and serious crime such as threats, robbery and violence. Hello! Do you have any thoughts about the case you have just read? Tips or input about news, trends or stories from Greater Oslo that I should write about? Feel free to send me an email! All information is treated confidentially. Published 24/07/2024, at 07.42
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Crack is spreading in Oslo’s heavy drug environments. The municipality is now handing out pipes and recipes – Greater Oslo
