#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, Anarchico Galatea FAI: The reality of heroin (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Heroin, obtained as a derivative of morphine by the English chemist Wright in

1874 and subsequently re-synthesized by Hoffman for Bayer in 1897 , was launched
as a pain reliever and a replacement for morphine itself in 1898. ---- However,
in the space of a decade, several states passed legislation to prohibit the
intake, as the consumption of heroin caused a strong addiction. The development
of a so-called "illegal" heroin industry brought enormous economic benefits to
those groups dedicated to the distribution and marketing of the product: the
criminal groups. ---- The first criminal groups to undertake this economic
activity were the clans present in France (especially in Marseille), in Turkey
and in that area of ​​Indochina called "the golden triangle" (precisely in the
territories of Burma, Laos and Thailand).
The interventions of the police all over the world to dismantle this market in
certain areas of the world or have had the effect of criminalizing the hired
people as they arrived to carry out various illegal actions - such as stealing,
prostituting or attacking other people -, in an effort to get money to pay for
the dose.
The heroin phenomenon in Italy, starting from the years 1970-1975, has been faced
by the state apparatuses with the modus operandi of criminalization, through the
blitzes of the police forces and the ad hoc news headlines on the "heroin addicts
phenomenon".

Such a modality has concealed, or deemed laughable, the political and military
responsibilities of Europe and the United States.
If we go into detail, we cannot fail to notice how the capitalist market has
created this industry.
By introducing a product such as heroin - which has become, as mentioned before,
illegal -, a "loyal" clientele has been created, which has become addicted and
with increasingly marked withdrawal crises - which, in certain cases, resulted in
the death of the person himself .

The demand thus created has increased the number of hiring people, raised the
profits of distributors and the production of the raw material from which heroin
is produced, namely the opium poppy.
The fight against heroin, carried out by associations linked or funded by private
and political bodies since the late 1970s, has involved two main aspects: the
first , or more evident, to a "transformation through redemption" of people
heroin users in beings useful to society; the second or , instead, to the
concealment of thethe responsibilities of the socio- economic system and its
military and political defenders, which have brought death and psycho-physical
destruction of individuals. To oppose this state of affairs there were the first
occupations in Italy complete with banners, debates and self-produced works -
such as "Dossier Eroina. Names and addresses ", a dossier edited by the
Autonomous Communist Collectives and Center for the fight and information against
heroin (and to which Fausto and Iaio, two militants of the Leoncavallo of Milan,
killed at the end of the 70s , collaborated ) - and various groups that they
tried to help, in a practical and scientific sense, the
hired persons .

Over time, however, these struggles began to subside for a variety of reasons:
the introduction of new drugs, political disaffection, greater media visibility
of the "respectable" associations mentioned above and so on.
Thus, the "heroin" problem, the various struggles, the testimonies collected and
the hiring people portrayed in films (such as "Heroin" by Pirri and "Amore
Tossico" by Caligari) or books (such as "Black lemons. Two years with the heroine
"by Ambrosi and" Dirty city. Toxic-transgressive-political-subversive diary "by
Roselvagge), were gradually put aside until the legalitarian nature of the
solution to the problem prevailed and the conception of the" drug addict "as a
person to be "redeemed" to reinsert it in society.
In recent decades, however, heroin, as it isthe resulting social problems have by
no means disappeared; from the capitalist point of view, the production of raw
material such as opium poppy has increased, as has its synthesis and subsequent
marketing.

To address the subject starting from one of the first socio-economic analyzes of
the heroin phenomenon, we therefore consider it appropriate to publish a 1977
interview made by Piero Landi to the sociologist Guido Blumir, author of books
such as "The drug and the system" and "Heroin", in which the latter explains the
capitalist nature of the phenomenon of heroin and drugs in general and, at the
same time, denounces the exaggerated repression of the state aimed at defending
those who actually sell (ie the capitalist).

Drawings taken from "Cannibale n. 2 New Series. USA ONLY "

from Umanità Nova, 25 December 1977, n. 45, year 57

The massive spread of heroin for some years is increasingly becoming one of the
most serious social and political problems of the Italian reality. In the
political and economic games that lie behind the introduction of hard drugs, a
precise plan of attack on the proletarian movement (understood in its broadest
sense) can now be identified, through the reduction to impotence and the physical
destruction of the most desperate and defenseless. Left-wing organizations and
individual comrades are already trying to give a response to power on this ground
as well. But the chances of success are linked on the one hand to the creation of
an ever wider mobilization, on the other to the lucidity and decision with which
the many connected problems are faced. To encourage a deeper discussion of the
debate, we publish an interview with Guido Blumir, considered one of the leading
Italian experts on the drug issue. He is the author of many books on the subject,
the latest of which, "Heroin", appeared in October 1976.

D .: Let's start with a general definition. What are drugs?
A .: For 10 years, hallucinating press campaigns have been based on a completely
unreal concept from the scientific point of view, meaning by drug on a mass level
the prohibited drugs: heroin, cocaine, hashish, marijuana etc. Instead, for
decades, science has established a completely different concept of drugs which
also includes all those substances that tens of millions of Italians take daily
and that are not considered drugs but, if anything, substances for pleasure
purposes - tobacco, alcohol , coffee - or medicines - psychotropic drugs,
sleeping pills. For science there is no difference from a point of view of
general definition between heroin and Cibalgina, between coffee and marijuana;
their main effect (let's leave aside the secondary effects for a moment) consists
in modifying psychic activity in some way, that is to produce in the brain
states, or shades of states other than the normal one. Another opinion that still
exists on a mass level and which must be fought is the belief that drugs are
something addictive. This is also not true. There are drugs that are not
addictive and drugs, even legal ones, which instead give a very serious
addiction, a degree of very intense and absolutely biological physical
dependence, detectable through laboratory tests but also evident to the subject
in a very simple way. When a substance is taken for a certain period (certain
doses every day for 2 or 3 months) and abruptly stopping its use, we realize that
we are physically and mentally ill - this phenomenon is called withdrawal crisis
- we technically have a drug that it is addictive. I do not insist, because it
would take a long discussion on this point alone, on prohibited drugs that are
not addictive. Let's say that on a scientific level all over the world this fact
is taken completely for granted. In all texts, even from the first years of
university. Soft drugs that derive from Indian hemp - hashish, marijuana and
other preparations - have a nil degree of addiction, even after using them for
decades. Widely used legal drugs, on the other hand, are addictive. Addiction, it
must be said, it is not a paper tiger. When the use of a drug is stopped, the
type of problems to break out of addiction is so complicated at the biological
level that scientists themselves disagree on a drug and medical treatment.

Q .: What makes heroin more dangerous than another drug, to the point of making
it a political problem?
A .: I have already talked about the technical aspect of heroin, for which it is
absolutely no different from alcohol, nicotine, or some psychotropic drugs such
as tranquilizers, sleeping pills, which are addictive. The thing that makes
heroin different is that it is illegal, prohibited, so there is a black market,
and heroin has a very high cost. When a heroin addict needs 2, 3, 4, 5 holes a
day, he is forced to spend many thousands of lire, even 20 thousand, even more.
Of course, given that most of the young proletarians who punch themselves do not
have these figures at their disposal, and the same goes for many students after
they have sold all the turntables, radios and other things they have at home, one
is forced to buy it, to sell it. In this way the whole heroin market was born,
which is practically destined to expand more and more for this mathematical
mechanism by which one is forced to become a drug dealer. He is also forced to
continue to be a puncher because in practice he does not have the possibility to
quit gently, to quit without going into a sea of ​​troubles. Addiction is
essentially a class problem. If a capitalist uses heroin, he does it with doses
of excellent quality, maybe he does not always do it in the mood, with
injections, he can for example "sniff it" or "smell it": it is much less toxic
and can also be pleasant. In any case it has a lesser degree of addictive
properties. This is done a lot for example in Rome in a certain environment made
up of show business people, intellectuals, rich people, plastic freaks etc.
Taking heroin by "snorting" like cocaine, and only once in a while, does not get
addicted. On the other hand, the young proletarians almost always start from the
hole, from the injection, because if one hole has the possibility of doing more.
Prices are what they are. A minimum dose in Rome in recent times has been around
5 thousand lire and even more, and one would need at least 20 thousand lire of
stuff to get it "snorting". With the same amount you can make 4 holes. In
addition to the problem of prices, a capitalist or a member of the entertainment
industry has the opportunity to be explained by the "technicians" how to take
heroin without becoming addicted, what are the margins of the game. Those who do
not have all these possibilities are informed by the facts on their skin.

Q .: Do you think men or women use drugs more?
A .: They tried to experiment in the laboratory with housewives who regularly
took 5 cups of coffee a day, with medical-clinical tests, to see what happened
when they stopped use: they all had a series of heart problems, tachycardia,
ache. head, tremors etc. which were due precisely to the lack of coffee. 239
young housewives were chosen (the experiment was done by American pharmacologists
in '69) because previous statistics showed that the majority of people who drank
more than 4 cups of coffee a day were women, and among them, in majority,
housewives. Everyone knows that women stay more at home, they do monotonous,
repetitive jobs, devoid of creativity, they get bored more. The woman-drug
relationship, massively exploited by the industry, began at least the last
century, when doctors even prescribed to women who were nervous or who had
various disorders including gynecological, first opium, then morphine, then even,
when it was discovered in 1898, heroin. The main heroin users, although not
knowing that it was addictive, but on the doctor's or husband's prescription,
were precisely women, especially housewives.
All direct advertising from industry to doctors was mostly about women. If it is
probable, though not certain, that today the majority of heroin users in Italy
are male, it is certain that most of those who take tranquilizers and sleeping
pills are women, and above all housewives. This is confirmed by all the
statistics and is valid not only for Italy but for all neo-capitalist countries.

Q .: In Italy a year ago a drug law was approved which was at least initially
positively evaluated by almost all the parliamentary forces. The scientific
committee "Freedom and Drugs" of which you are president spoke instead of drug
arrest and the fraud law, heavily criticizing the law. A year later, can you
confirm these judgments?
A .: When the text of this law was discovered, which as usual lay hidden in some
parliamentary drawers, the Alternative Press comrades held a press conference,
the journalists of the most important newspapers present, and made a critical
analysis of this law, saying that at least it was worse than the old one against
which so many battles had been fought. Hardly any newspaper published a line on
this violent criticism precisely because a general silence of all the parties of
the so-called constitutional arch had been created, a silence aggravated by the
attitude of the PCI which was so favorable to the formulation of this law that it
was called, in a series of articles on Unity, "One of the most modern laws in
Europe". Thanks to "one of the most modern laws in Europe", since it came into
force in January 1976, up to December more than 2 thousand children ended up in
jail either because they held some joint, some cigarette butt or some packet of
heroin, or because they were simply suspected of being drug addicts. I believe
that how it happened, this matter, apart from some grotesque implications, is an
example of what the power of a regime extended to the PCI can be today, when in
the wake of more or less reactionary campaigns on public order or on these
issues, an attempt is made to pass a special law, therefore a law that
criminalizes the whole movement or some minorities in general. A similar thing
happened with the Royal Law, but the game was less open. In fact, the PCI with a
kind of ballet ended, if I am not mistaken to abstain, while the PSI voted in
favor. The drug law is therefore the first openly fascist law of general
criminalization that was approved by all the parties of the left. Adherence of
the Radical Party to this law certainly had considerable weight, albeit with
numerous reservations. The Radicals had previously been the protagonists of a
spectacular campaign that culminated in the arrest of Marco Pannella, something
that had undoubtedly taken the tension in the debate on drug laws to a very high
point. There is a very good job done by the comrades of the political-juridical
collective of Bologna, of analyzing all aspects of this law. It was published in
"The criminal question" of January / April 1976, a specialized magazine that does
very interesting research on the dangers of certain laws. It is good that the
comrades get this work because it shows a series of diabolical legal tricks with
which anyone who is not aware of it can easily be caught thanks to this law, in
the face of all the theories that present it as a permissive and decriminalizing
law. . In particular, the role that the "reformists" can have in the mass
criminalization with this law - I speak of mass because today, for better or
worse, hundreds of thousands of comrades who smoke, and then it is a law that can
be applied to of those who do not smoke, on the basis of mere suspicions - I was
told by some comrades from Bologna. in spite of all the theories that present it
as a permissive and decriminalizing law. In particular, the role that the
"reformists" can have in the mass criminalization with this law - I speak of mass
because today, for better or worse, hundreds of thousands of comrades who smoke,
and then it is a law that can be applied to of those who do not smoke, on the
basis of mere suspicions - I was told by some comrades from Bologna. in spite of
all the theories that present it as a permissive and decriminalizing law. In
particular, the role that the "reformists" can have in the mass criminalization
with this law - I speak of mass because today, for better or worse, hundreds of
thousands of comrades who smoke, and then it is a law that can be applied to of
those who do not smoke, on the basis of mere suspicions - I was told by some
comrades from Bologna.
It even seems that the traffic police were used to carry out searches, stops and
arrests for drugs, from which one is not particularly careful. It is an
enlargement of all the control structures that places the need to do a great work
of militant self-defense and, as far as it can be useful, of counter-information,
of campaigns at the national level. I believe that this law, and the last few
months are proving it, remains one of the deadliest weapons against the comrades
of the movement. There are arrests and roundups even in small provincial towns,
with comrades who end up in jail for months and months, with or without drugs.
What happened with the old law but expanded in a more subtle way, even with a
series of blackmail techniques that this law provides. To name just one, but
there are really dozens of these tricks, when someone is "pinched", by law if he
does not reveal the names and surnames of all those who perhaps once procured,
offered, talked about joints etc. he is put in jail. The consequence is that a
whole series of people on the fringes of the movement blackmailed in this way -
many cases have happened - make incredible lists of names on which the Police
then naturally go wild. There is a sensational case that demonstrates how we
cannot expect a serious and effective fight against heroin trafficking from the
Police, but how, on the contrary, the movement must also place itself among its
tasks at the local level, that of denouncing connivance with counter-information
campaigns. between law enforcement and drug dealers. In Rome, in June 1975, a
complaint about heroin and corruption was presented by the Alternative Press
Agency to the Public Prosecutor's Office against the top officials of the
anti-drug unit of the Carabinieri in Rome. This denunciation was prominently
published in the Roman newspapers. The sensational fact is that immediately
after, in the following 18 months, the Carabinieri not only did not
counter-denounce this group for slander, but they did not even try to deny the
news in some way, with letters to the newspapers or with the usual communications
to the Agencies. of printing. In the same period, the judiciary completely
allowed the complaint to go unnoticed and did not carry out any kind of
investigation. It is a silence that is an obvious implicit admission of guilt,
and since this happened in the city from which the trafficking of heavy drugs in
Italy started in 1971/72, it seems to me that it is not at all risky to suppose
connivance of the same type between drug centers and anti-narcotic police squads
with drug dealers in other cities as well. At least from the bulk of the events
that took place in 1976, no type of action that led to the seizures of large
quantities of heroin trafficked in Italy is deduced, apart from a couple of
seizures at Fiumicino airport, but they were goods in transit. No major
kidnapping, and above all no arrest or indictment or investigation of high-level
trafficking organizations. Just the usual trickle of hundreds and hundreds of
kids as usual users of soft drugs or heroin.

D .: It is therefore a question of fighting on two fronts at the same time:
against heroin and against the state, with its laws and its police. Based on your
experience, what information do you think you can give to your teammates?
A .: Today the movement is seriously addressing the problem of "what to do?" and
for the most part it appears to be largely insufficient with respect to the very
big tasks it faces. Even if there are teammates in trouble, you rarely have the
technical opportunity to give them a hand. But many things are about to be done
or are already working. As an indication of what can be done, I limit myself to
reporting the proposals that emerged at the happening conference of the Youth
Clubs in Milan:
1) Create minimal centers of medical and legal assistance, beyond the
institutions of the state and local authorities, that is, self-managed social
centers that have the possibility of providing assistance. The problem of
repression is even more important than the political one.
2) Fight against the black market of heroin, both through counter-information on
drug dealers, and through violent actions against high-level drug dealers
themselves, i.e. non-drug addicts, traffic organizers and the places where they
operate (bars, houses, etc.).
3) Counter-information campaigns against the new anti-drug law and on the drug
problem in general.
4) Self-awareness. The problem is to know why the comrades get punctured, to
argue with them. In Milan, a comrade from a club in Naples posed this problem and
from the debate that developed between him and some comrades who got holes in it,
it emerged that only the latter can concretely help in this work of self-awareness.
These are the points, and even if they are few, they undoubtedly present great
difficulties on the operational level.

https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2022/10/07/la-realta-delleroina/
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