1 00:00:02,235 --> 00:00:04,170 Hi my name is Janne Wallin 2 00:00:04,237 --> 00:00:07,774 and I am a heroin user 3 00:00:07,841 --> 00:00:09,676 Who is now attending a methadone program 4 00:00:09,709 --> 00:00:10,877 here, in Stockholm 5 00:00:17,884 --> 00:00:17,917 A Heroin User in Stockholm 6 00:00:22,989 --> 00:00:26,893 I'm still a user, and I have a life. 7 00:00:27,527 --> 00:00:30,130 In the evenings I work as a projectionist 8 00:00:30,130 --> 00:00:33,600 at a Cinema here in town. 9 00:00:42,108 --> 00:00:44,978 When I'm on methadone, I'm a drug user. 10 00:00:46,312 --> 00:00:47,414 The difference is that 11 00:00:48,548 --> 00:00:49,716 I'm not... 12 00:00:50,216 --> 00:00:52,519 I get my drugs the legal way. 13 00:00:52,986 --> 00:00:57,524 And I don't have to do criminal acts 14 00:00:57,557 --> 00:01:01,995 in order to get the drug. 15 00:01:07,167 --> 00:01:09,936 I had a car accident in 1984, 16 00:01:09,969 --> 00:01:11,504 a rather severe car accident. 17 00:01:11,571 --> 00:01:13,473 I was stuck in the car, 18 00:01:13,506 --> 00:01:16,242 with the engine up to my stomach 19 00:01:16,276 --> 00:01:18,111 and my face out through the window. 20 00:01:18,144 --> 00:01:19,746 I was in pain when I woke up 21 00:01:19,813 --> 00:01:23,450 at the intensive care, severe pain, 22 00:01:23,716 --> 00:01:26,252 and I got morphine for the first time, 23 00:01:26,252 --> 00:01:27,887 as a pain killer. 24 00:01:27,954 --> 00:01:29,889 I was quite depressed, 25 00:01:29,889 --> 00:01:32,459 and when I got the morphine it was like 26 00:01:32,459 --> 00:01:34,994 all troubles just disappeared. 27 00:01:35,128 --> 00:01:37,097 It was a very nice feeling, 28 00:01:37,097 --> 00:01:39,532 all the anxiety disappeared, everything disappeared. 29 00:01:39,532 --> 00:01:41,734 It was a kind of a positive meeting, 30 00:01:41,734 --> 00:01:43,002 and I think that has been 31 00:01:43,002 --> 00:01:44,370 in the back of my head ever since. 32 00:01:44,771 --> 00:01:49,576 Then later on in life when I had another trauma, 33 00:01:49,642 --> 00:01:52,946 more of a kind of a severe depression, 34 00:01:52,946 --> 00:01:55,882 and shit like that with, 35 00:01:55,882 --> 00:01:58,785 you know suicidal thinking and stuff like that. 36 00:01:58,785 --> 00:02:00,720 I really didn't want to live. 37 00:02:00,787 --> 00:02:02,555 Then this came up in the back of my head, 38 00:02:02,555 --> 00:02:04,824 I said maybe I should try out the morphine again. 39 00:02:04,824 --> 00:02:07,927 I did and I sort of made it through. 40 00:02:08,027 --> 00:02:13,199 When the addiction got such a hold of me, 41 00:02:13,566 --> 00:02:17,403 that I started to do things which is 42 00:02:17,437 --> 00:02:19,305 normally not in my nature to do; 43 00:02:19,305 --> 00:02:22,142 I stole from my kids to get money, 44 00:02:24,210 --> 00:02:27,714 I stole from my family, I stole my wife's wedding ring, 45 00:02:27,747 --> 00:02:29,782 you know, took it to a pawn shop, 46 00:02:29,983 --> 00:02:34,854 because I was so terrified of going cold turkey. 47 00:02:34,854 --> 00:02:36,656 Completely terrified of it. 48 00:02:47,734 --> 00:02:52,038 I started up with heroin in 1991, 49 00:02:52,305 --> 00:02:55,742 and ended up in jail for three years, and so on. 50 00:02:57,110 --> 00:02:59,746 When I went to the social services they said: 51 00:02:59,779 --> 00:03:01,247 "No, we can't help you. 52 00:03:01,381 --> 00:03:03,650 You're not down the drain enough, 53 00:03:03,650 --> 00:03:06,186 you have to do heroin for another four years 54 00:03:06,186 --> 00:03:08,521 and then you can come back and then we can help you. 55 00:03:09,455 --> 00:03:13,193 And then when I got methadone in 1998, 56 00:03:13,426 --> 00:03:16,296 I saw how the doctors treated persons 57 00:03:16,429 --> 00:03:23,770 that were severely sick of Hepatitis C, and HIV. 58 00:03:23,937 --> 00:03:26,940 Because they relapsed and then they took the methadone away 59 00:03:26,940 --> 00:03:28,841 and throw them back on the street. 60 00:03:28,841 --> 00:03:31,411 Even if the doctor knew that you're going to die 61 00:03:31,411 --> 00:03:34,847 in a five month period. They didn't care. 62 00:03:35,215 --> 00:03:38,985 I got to wait about six months 63 00:03:39,285 --> 00:03:41,254 before I came into treatment. 64 00:03:41,321 --> 00:03:42,755 In bad case, you can die 65 00:03:42,755 --> 00:03:45,892 long before you're able to enter it. 66 00:03:45,992 --> 00:03:50,129 I think substitution should be expanded even more, 67 00:03:50,129 --> 00:03:53,800 even though this has changed, its still restrictive, 68 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:55,768 and I have met people on methadone 69 00:03:55,768 --> 00:03:58,071 who have not been able to get it here in Sweden 70 00:03:58,071 --> 00:03:59,272 so they will go to Copenhagen. 71 00:03:59,572 --> 00:04:02,976 In Stockholm its easier to get into the program, 72 00:04:03,309 --> 00:04:04,344 compared to other places 73 00:04:04,410 --> 00:04:07,347 like for instance Goethenberg, you have to wait one, 74 00:04:07,380 --> 00:04:09,382 two years to get into treatment. 75 00:04:09,449 --> 00:04:12,018 Even though its been decided 76 00:04:12,018 --> 00:04:13,319 that you should have it. 77 00:04:28,134 --> 00:04:29,435 What I mainly criticize in the 78 00:04:29,435 --> 00:04:30,770 Swedish methadone program 79 00:04:30,770 --> 00:04:33,906 is the control, the extreme control. 80 00:04:33,973 --> 00:04:38,511 Theres always these urine tests, and if you're positive 81 00:04:38,544 --> 00:04:40,346 then you will be punished, 82 00:04:40,380 --> 00:04:42,815 you will not get your take home doses, 83 00:04:42,815 --> 00:04:45,918 and at some clinics they do strip searches. 84 00:04:46,219 --> 00:04:48,321 You have to drop your trousers, 85 00:04:48,354 --> 00:04:49,922 and maybe even your underwear, 86 00:04:49,956 --> 00:04:53,159 and they will look over you for injection marks, 87 00:04:53,192 --> 00:04:57,130 and if you have kind of a little wound, they will clean it 88 00:04:57,163 --> 00:04:59,966 and look, if that it isn't an injection mark. 89 00:05:00,033 --> 00:05:02,335 And even if it isn't, they can claim that it is. 90 00:05:10,009 --> 00:05:12,245 They treat you like you're a little child, 91 00:05:12,245 --> 00:05:15,048 or that you're potentially dangerous, 92 00:05:15,081 --> 00:05:18,718 or that you don't know what's best for you. 93 00:05:19,519 --> 00:05:21,654 And when you're a drug addict in Sweden, 94 00:05:21,654 --> 00:05:24,390 you're automatically discharged 95 00:05:24,424 --> 00:05:27,026 from normal behavior, so to speak. 96 00:05:27,060 --> 00:05:29,796 You're always kind of stigmatized 97 00:05:30,263 --> 00:05:33,399 in some kind of way, often by peoples attitudes, 98 00:05:33,399 --> 00:05:36,502 and thats especially in treatment. 99 00:05:36,569 --> 00:05:38,271 Intravenous drug users are of course 100 00:05:38,271 --> 00:05:40,573 vulnerable for blood-borne viruses, 101 00:05:40,573 --> 00:05:45,078 because they have the most accessible 102 00:05:45,078 --> 00:05:49,015 routes to get the virus. By sharing needles, syringes, 103 00:05:49,015 --> 00:05:50,983 and other paraphernalia, like the filters, 104 00:05:50,983 --> 00:05:52,585 the spoons, the cookers, everything. 105 00:05:52,585 --> 00:05:57,023 In 1968, there was a government decision 106 00:05:57,023 --> 00:06:03,529 that they should try to make it hard 107 00:06:03,529 --> 00:06:05,598 to get a hold of needles and syringes. 108 00:06:05,631 --> 00:06:09,435 So they made a policy that stated that you have to have 109 00:06:09,435 --> 00:06:13,172 needle and syringes on recipe, or prescribed. 110 00:06:13,373 --> 00:06:15,475 This was to prevent the epidemic 111 00:06:15,475 --> 00:06:16,709 of intravenous drug use, 112 00:06:16,709 --> 00:06:20,480 and this was in 1968 and in 1979 they had a figure 113 00:06:20,513 --> 00:06:23,716 of intravenous drug users around 12,000, 114 00:06:23,750 --> 00:06:25,418 and now we are up to the double. 115 00:06:25,418 --> 00:06:28,755 So I don't know if that policy was successful. 116 00:06:28,788 --> 00:06:30,790 As far as the Hepatitis C goes, 117 00:06:30,790 --> 00:06:33,459 its kind of a hidden disease. 118 00:06:34,327 --> 00:06:38,765 I got it back in 2001, I think it was, 119 00:06:38,798 --> 00:06:43,102 and I hadn't heard about it before. 120 00:06:43,202 --> 00:06:45,772 I didn't really know what it was. 121 00:06:46,038 --> 00:06:48,307 Didn't know the difference between A, B, and C, 122 00:06:48,307 --> 00:06:51,344 and I didn't know that it could infect so easily, 123 00:06:51,377 --> 00:06:55,314 and all the information came to me when it was too late. 124 00:06:55,381 --> 00:06:59,819 We recently did a prevalence study in Stockholm, 125 00:06:59,819 --> 00:07:04,490 where we tested 300 intravenous drug users, 126 00:07:04,657 --> 00:07:08,895 and the prevalence of Hepatitis C was 89 percent. 127 00:07:08,995 --> 00:07:11,964 So internationally, thats quite a high figure. 128 00:07:12,031 --> 00:07:16,869 One reason is that we don't have needle syringe programs, 129 00:07:17,270 --> 00:07:22,408 but also its a lack of knowledge among the users. 130 00:07:22,442 --> 00:07:28,381 When it comes to HIV, my fear is that the lack of 131 00:07:28,381 --> 00:07:31,284 a needle syringe program would render it 132 00:07:31,284 --> 00:07:34,220 in an epidemic of HIV among intravenous drug users, 133 00:07:34,220 --> 00:07:38,591 which it actually did, just a couple of years ago, 134 00:07:38,624 --> 00:07:41,093 where you saw an increase in HIV 135 00:07:41,127 --> 00:07:43,563 among the intravenous drug users in Stockholm, 136 00:07:43,563 --> 00:07:47,533 but not in the south of Sweden where we actually 137 00:07:47,533 --> 00:07:49,869 have two needle and syringe programs. 138 00:07:49,902 --> 00:07:54,340 After many years, a law has been passed saying 139 00:07:54,373 --> 00:07:57,910 that we could have needle exchange programs. 140 00:07:57,910 --> 00:08:01,948 But except for two cities in the south of Sweden 141 00:08:01,948 --> 00:08:06,152 which have had it on the experimental level for a long time, 142 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:10,523 it has not been implemented by the counties. 143 00:08:10,556 --> 00:08:11,958 They refuse to do it. 144 00:08:12,525 --> 00:08:15,895 We are not for it. Which of course was 145 00:08:15,895 --> 00:08:18,397 our natural instinct to be against it. 146 00:08:18,431 --> 00:08:21,200 Why should you help people using drugs? 147 00:08:21,234 --> 00:08:23,769 You should help them not using drugs. 148 00:08:23,769 --> 00:08:27,440 When its come to preventing HIV and Hepatitis C, 149 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:29,842 the needle exchange programs are quite good. 150 00:08:29,842 --> 00:08:35,448 And as I said, the UN is promoting this.