Thursday, August 14

Georgia's War on Drugs: How Its Subutex Addiction Ended

Wars are particularly stupid son. Drug wars are even more stupid. You know what I feel about this. 

But here's a great story about how Georgia fought drugs. Remember they just won one battle. The druggies are still there. Eating vomit. Stay away from drugs son. It's horrible. That's what you are reduced to. Eating somebody else's vomit. 

Love

Baba

Georgia's War on Drugs: How Its Subutex Addiction Ended | New Republic
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113051/georgias-war-drugs-how-its-subutex-addiction-ended


Needle drugs seldom make a city look pretty, but some cities are more disfigured by them than others. In 2006, when I first visited Tbilisi, Georgia, it had all the wrecked majesty of an ex-beauty queen with six years of track-marks down her arms. It was a great European capital in decay: crumbling bridges, refugees from war, and—most of all—cast-off syringes everywhere. Alleys, parks, and tunnels under the Soviet-style boulevards all had this spiky detritus, which badly spoiled Tbilisi’s old-world romance and instead put it into a permanent state of biohazard.

So when I returned this year, I packed thick-soled shoes. It turned out that, but for the frigid temperatures (and my own self-respect), I could have worn Tevas. The syringes, which once pumped opiates into the veins of as many as 250,000 addicts, are absent. The subway now feels safe, clean, and orderly, with no trash more revolting than a Snickers wrapper. The tunnels under Rustaveli Avenue still smell pissy, but so do most big cities’ tunnels. If the addicts are still there, they have been persuaded to shoot up with greater discretion. And if they are now gone, the Georgians have accomplished something remarkable, which is the rapid diminution of smackheads.

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