Drug use in Lisbon increases among migrants and young people – Society

Drug use in Lisbon is increasing among the migrant and young population, according to organizations working on the ground in this area.

The director of Ares do Pinhal, a non-governmental organization that manages the only Integrated Support Service aimed at people who use drugs, located in Lisbon, highlights, in statements to Lusa, that the affected migrant populations “have been increasing day by day” .

They are mainly people from South Asia, where opium is “culturally normal”, and who in Portugal look for equivalent substances, such as smoked heroin, portrays Elsa Belo, responsible for the space installed in Quinta do Loureiro (Alcântara), which provides a series of services, including assisted consumption rooms, to an average of 300 people per day.

It turns out that the average age of this migrant population is around 20 years old, well below the average age of other consumers, a situation that Elsa Belo considers “much more worrying”.

Bruna Alves, coordinator of the only mobile supervised consumption unit, which operates in five parishes in the eastern part of Lisbon, confirms that there is “a younger population with consumption”, although there is also “a greater longevity” of consumers.

Stressing that, in terms of consumption, migrants “need the same response” as everyone else, the social worker at the non-governmental organization Médicos do Mundo, recognizes, however, that the teams must have “more time” and other valences.

“Many [migrantes] They speak neither English nor French, which also ends up limiting our intervention a little. It is difficult for us to understand the limitations they have, the health problems they have. It was very necessary, in fact, to have this translation”, he highlights.

Until now, it has been the technicians themselves trying to “do it the best way”.

In Lisbon, he says, everyone knows that there are areas where “there is a greater prevalence” of drugs, but changes in the dynamics of consumption “are constant”.

Currently, there has been “an increase in smoked consumption”, especially ‘crack’ (cooked cocaine), but, highlights Bruna Alves, “there continues to be a lot of intravenous consumption”.

In operation for two and a half years, the Integrated Support Service at Quinta do Loureiro currently has around 2,600 subscribers, 85% of whom are male, with an average age of 45 years.

According to official figures, a third of those registered are homeless, many of whom spend the night on the outskirts of the neighborhood, a number that has also “increased”, says Elsa Belo.