They are “very cheap,” addictive, and abound on the streets: in São Miguel, Azores, new psychoactive substances (NPS), commonly known as synthetic drugs, are mixed with bleach or fertilizers in “home labs,” causing psychotic outbursts and disrupting cognition. functions.
Ponta Delgada has a sale and consumption, such as in the garden, where tourists take pictures, teenagers eat sandwiches, and older people play cards in the afternoon – the authorities know, it’s in plain sight, but “consumption is not a crime.” “and” I don’t sell synthetics either,” justifies the CEO of Arrisca, the Regional Association for the Rehabilitation and Socio-Cultural Integration of the Azores, Suzette Frias.
“Every week there is a new substance. Selling is only a crime if it is included in the lists of illegal consumption. There are currently three on the list. We are always looking for damage,” he laments.
With regard to the bill introduced in the Assembly of the Republic to criminalize NPS, Suzette Frias believes that “since new substances appear on a weekly basis, the fundamental problem remains.”
More than a third of the NSP seized in 2021 in Portugal were collected in the Azores, where substances “never seen” in Europe were already registered, the judicial police said in 2022.
The number of NSP users in the region is not counted, but 937 users were enrolled in opioid substitution treatment programs in March, and “many of them are concurrent users of synthetic drugs,” regional health secretary Monica Seydi told Luce.
For some, “the cognitive part will be very difficult to return to normal,” says Silvia Moreira, psychologist at Alternativa – Associação contra as Dependency.
“If they ingest fuel, insecticides, bleach or acetone mixed with drugs, what will happen to their brains? It’s literally poison,” he warns.
Suzette Frias also mentions that psychoactive substances are “mixed in the Azores with fertilizers, disinfectants or rat medicines”, products “as harmful” as drugs “in home laboratories but dangerous because they contain flammable materials” .
“The Azores consumer is, in fact, a polydrug who buys and consumes cheap substances without thinking about the degree of risk they entail,” the Regional Authority for the Prevention and Control of Drug Addiction reads in a written response.
According to Suzette Frias, “the biggest motivation” for NSP is the price.
“For two or three euros, you can buy a small package for several doses. On the other hand, there are more of these drugs,” he points out.
But “the main reason for consumption in the Azores is poverty,” he stresses, adding that in São Miguel, the island with the highest prevalence of consumption, the majority of drug addicts “have a low level of education, social insecurity and shop on the street.”
According to 2022 data from the National Institute of Statistics, the Azores was the region of the country with the highest risk of poverty (28.5%).
According to the head of Arriska, “the government needs to invest in prevention, in the fight against poverty, in the development of the economy, jobs, access to housing.”
NSPs cause “rapid changes in behavior and mood, aggressiveness, yellowish-white skin tone” and “mental disturbances and psychotic episodes” such as “hearing, visions, and persecutory delusions,” says psychologist Silvia Moreira.
He adds that most consumers “leave their homes or they’ll just demand money or steal something.”
A Novo Dia 2020 study found 493 homeless people in the Azores and a “higher proportion of homeless people per thousand inhabitants (2%)” than on the mainland (0.84%).
In addition to those who sleep on the street, there are also those who spend the day there, wandering along seemingly endless walks, begging for “five cents on a sandwich” or stopping at supermarkets with glasses outstretched to wait for coins.
According to the Regional Office, the number of people referred to therapeutic communities in the Azores has risen from 26 in 2019 to 35 in 2022, 63 in 2021 and 25 in 2022.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.