Bogota, Colombia – The Christian Camilo Amire’s left arm draws a tattoo with a skull perforated by a syringe, which he says is that cocaine and heroin represents the use of cocaine. He often opened fire on the Bogota street, but he recently switched to South America’s only monitoring room for drug use, whose target was to reduce damage and prevent overdose.
The non -profit action technica operates the room under the supervision of Camby (or English change) in the capital of Social Colombia. Since it was opened in June 2023, 14 users overdose were treated with nuloxon injections, a drug that reversed overdose. The last incident was a year ago.
Amaya often carries a black plastic bag with more than a dozen syringes, which he puts in a red container for biological waste, as a protocol for room dictate use. He refused to be addicted to heroin, but argued that the monitoring house gave him a syringe and training on healthy injections and excess dimensions.
“I know what the substances do with me, so I know that I should not be very frequently useful to avoid getting addicted,” told the associated press in the use of unmarked drugs in the poor neighborhood of Amaya.
The initiative is one of the topics of the international conference on the loss of damage that starts on Sunday in Bogota. The leftist administration of President Gustavo Petro has been held for the first time in Latin America in the last three decades due to pressure to amend the UN international drug control system.
There are currently 57 registered users in the monitoring customer room, including 2 % of Venezuela migrants, who come to injection or get syringes, food, guidance or overdose about low-risk injection techniques.
Use 91% of heroin among users in the room, 7% injected cocaine and less than 2% speedball, a mixture of cocaine and heroin. Official data on the use of heroin in Colombia is very low.
The project was born in 2022 when organizers began to contact users directly to identify their needs. It received technical advice from other countries, especially from Mexico.
For David Moreno, working in Camby, the most difficult part of the overdose is not injected by Naloxone, but avoiding follow-up overdose.
Moreno said “I once had a user that he would become very violent when he returned to excess
“When this happens I am calm. But when the user leaves … wow, wow, my adrenaline runs away” “
Sam Rivera, the executive director of OPoint, a non-York City, visited the three patients with the cube before visiting the AP.
“I see it as a mini version of what we are doing,” Rivera said. He argued that the initiative is also good for public protection.
“I always ask people to go to an extra level resistance center. When you listen to it it sounds dangerous or it looks bad because you are able to use people,” he added. “These people who are going to use. So out, in danger, these supplies instead of leaving the street, everything happens inside, everything is inside.”
Leave a Reply