Silk Road forums
Discussion => Drug safety => Topic started by: abby on May 17, 2013, 01:16 pm
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I was having a read of this (clearnet) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/16/greek-addicts-sisha-drug-crisis Is this some kind of meth cut with crap or something else?
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Nobody knows which came first: the economic crisis tearing Greece apart or shisha, the drug now known as the "cocaine of the poor". What everyone does accept is that shisha is a killer. And at €2 or less a hit, it is one that has come to stalk Greece, the country long on the frontline of Europe's financial meltdown.
"As drugs go, it is the worst. It burns your insides, it makes you aggressive and ensures that you go totally mad," said Maria, a former heroin addict. "But it is cheap and it is easy to get, and it is what everyone is doing."
The drug crisis, brought to light in a new film by Vice.com, has put Athens's health authorities, already overwhelmed by draconian cuts, under further strain.
The drug of preference for thousands of homeless Greeks forced on to the streets by poverty and despair, shisha is described by both addicts and officials as a variant of crystal meth whose potential to send users into a state of mindless violence is underpinned by the substances with which the synthetic drug is frequently mixed: battery acid, engine oil and even shampoo.
Worse still, it is not only readily available, but easy to make – tailor-made for a society that despite official prognostications of optimism, and fiscal progress, on the ground, at least, sees little light at the end of the tunnel.
"It is a killer but it also makes you want to kill," Konstantinos, a drug addict, told Vice. "You can kill without understanding that you have done it … And it is spreading faster than death. A lot of users have died."
For Charalampos Poulopoulos, the head of Kethea, Greece's pre-eminent anti-drug centre, shisha symbolises the depredations of a crisis that has spawned record levels of destitution and unemployment. It is, he said, an "austerity drug" – the best response yet of dealers who have become ever more adept at producing synthetic drugs designed for those who can no longer afford more expensive highs from such drugs as heroin and cocaine.
"The crisis has given dealers the possibility to promote a new, cheap drug, a cocaine for the poor," said Poulopoulos at a centre run for addicts in Exarcheia, the anarchist stronghold in Athens. "Shisha can be sniffed or injected and it can be made in home laboratories – you don't need any specialised knowledge. It is extremely dangerous."
Across Greece, the byproducts of six straight years of recession have been brutal and cruel. Depression, along with drug and alcohol abuse, has risen dramatically. Delinquency and crime have soared as Greece's social fabric has unravelled under the weight of austerity measures that have cut the income of ordinary Greeks by 40%. Prostitution – the easiest way of financing drug addition – has similarly skyrocketed.
"Desperation is such that many women agree to engage in unprotected sex because that way they'll make more money," said Eleni Marini, a British-trained psychologist with Kethea. "Shisha has been linked to a very intense sexual drive but it attacks your ability to think straight and we're seeing a lot more pregnancies among drug addicts who engage in prostitution." Last year, two sex workers gave birth on the streets of Athens.
In a climate of pervasive uncertainty –where suicides have also shot up and the spread of HIV infections has assumed epidemic proportions – drug addicts (a population believed to be around 25,000 strong), have become increasingly self-destructive. And, experts say, young Greeks marginalised by record rates of unemployment - at 64% Greece has the highest youth unemployment in the EU – are leading the way.
"The crisis has created a widespread sense of pessimism," said Poulopoulos. "For those who might have quit drugs there is now no incentive. Instead, there's an atmosphere of misery where people knowing they won't find work are becoming a lot more self-destructive. In Athens, where the economic crisis has hit hardest, shisha is part of that."
Greece's conservative-dominated coalition has tried to deal with the problem by driving drug users and other homeless people out of the city centre – a series of controversial police operations has swept central streets, clearing crowded doorways and malls.
"But with such actions, authorities are only sweeping the problem under the carpet," said Poulopoulos, a UK-trained social worker whose oversight of Kethea has won plaudits internationally. "What, in reality, they are really doing is marginalising these people even more by pushing them into the arms of drug dealers who offer them protection."
Just when the demand for help has never been greater, state-funded organisations such as Kethea have had their budgets slashed by a third at the request of the "troika" — the EU, ECB and IMF — keeping the debt-stricken Greek economy afloat.
Since the outbreak of the crisis in 2009, Kethea has lost 70 of its 500 staff.
The cuts come despite studies showing that for every euro invested in programmes such as Kethea, the state saves about €6 in costs to the criminal justice and healthcare systems. "The cuts we have witnessed are a false economy, a huge mistake," said Poulopoulos.
On the streets of Athens, the breeding ground of shisha, there is rising fear that austerity not only doesn't work, it kills.
• A note from Helena Smith on the spelling of shisha, which has been the subject of many comments below the line:
Glad to see this story is generating such debate! On the issue of nomenclature - as I see many comments have focused on spelling of the drug itself - I feel I should say that I opted for shisha as the head of Greece's anti-drug unit, Charalampos Poulopoulos, who I interviewed for the piece refers to it as such, making the point that the word derives from the Persian word, shishe, which means glass and is popularly used to describe glass pipes in the Arab and African world.
Sisa appears to be a transliteration from Σίσα, as the drug is known in Greek slang. In Greek, as many will know, an "h" is not used and there is no letter that singularly conveys "sh" as it is pronounced in English.
Link to vice film: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/vice-news/sisa-cocaine-of-the-poor-part-1
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Wow. Sounds a lot like the Krokodil outbreak that happened in Russia about a year ago or so. Really unfortunate that drugs are being created and used for such destructive things.
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I had to go digging to remind myself what krokodil was.. ugh (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/krokodil-the-drug-that-eats-junkies-2300787.html for a recap)
this is supposedly a meth derivative, yet it seems to have all the same effects as meth. I'm thinking it's just meth cut with crap (engine oil ffs!) but I don't know enough about meth to say anything for certain.
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Was weirded out as Shisha refers to flavored syrupy tobacco at the local smoke shop.
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Yeah, before clicking on this thread I thought abby was asking about shisha smoked in hookahs. I was just like come on now, just use Google haahah.
Reading more about it seems like it is just meth being cut with a lot of dangerous fillers to make it cheaper. Things like this are what gives drugs such a bad image.
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In the Vice documentary the Greek authorities kept referencing using batteries/battery acid... are they likely referring to lithium? I guess cake-y battery acid would visually cut well with meth if it were being sold as a 'new' substance.
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For anyone who can't be bothered to watch the film... There appears to be 2 or 3 new drugs, maybe all of them are meth but cooked up in a different way or cut with different stuff. The first one you snorted or injected, now there's one you can smoke.
Rumors are that 6 months of regular use will lead to tremendous physical and mental problems and perhaps death, but the documentary doesn't really show evidence of that, it's just what the users are saying.
The real tragedy here is the greek economy and the ensuing poverty, and the increasing amount of homeless people who are now doing this drug because it's so cheap. If they were on actual crystal meth, their lives I expect would not be much better... And there certainly wouldn't be any media interest in it. As the film maker says at one point, "Sisa is just the icing on the cake."
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The real tragedy here is the greek economy and the ensuing poverty, and the increasing amount of homeless people who are now doing this drug because it's so cheap.
This clearnet image adds some more perspective:
http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2013/05/2013-EU-12.png
Weird how Poland simultaneously trusts Germany the most and the least. Weird how Germany is almost across the board Most Trusted given the world wars. Relevant bit is Greece's opinion on themselves and Germany; Greeks are being a bit bitchy about their get-out-of-economic-collapse-free card, granted that it's not free so much as 'follow these German rules'.
Nationalism only breeds disgusting things.
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Yeah, before clicking on this thread I thought abby was asking about shisha smoked in hookahs.
I thought the same haha!
Seems similar to Krokodil, apart from the fact it doesn't melt your skin.
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Found another link on Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisa_(drug) Its something I know in Ireland I am making people aware of whats happening in Greece , there are alot of Greek Sex workers who are migrating over here also we have alot of Eastern European gangs operating who are controlling alot of the Heroin and Coke markets, we have seen a couple of incidences of Krokodil so sisa only seems like a natrual progression when the quantity and the quality of the drug declines esp in countries who are in recession such as Ireland and else where . This is quite a good link but with limited info http://ewsd.wiv-isp.be/Rapid%20communications%20%20extra%20information/SISA_GR_Feb2012.pdf
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Every "filler" listed in the Vice article is not a filler at all, but impurities that can be found in meth across the globe from sloppy production.
The article was poorly written and researched, and a sad attempt at sensationalist journalism IMO.
To me, it looks like we have an uninformed author trying to create a "Krokodil 2.0" series. They are trying to create mystique around something where it does not exist. The author/Vice make true asses of themselves with this article IMO.
IMO, what we are looking at here is nothing more than crudely made methamphetamine (similar to "shake n bake"). Everything they list as a cut/filler is something that could be used in the production process, either as a solvent or chemical reagent.
There's really nothing new here. Methamphetamine use has historically skyrocketed during periods of severe depression of nations since World War 2.
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I've seen the documentary on it, but that doesnt reveal too much in itself.
I reckon its just really badly prepared meth though, as the process involves ephedrine tablets at lithium from batteries.
In itself this isn't really that bad a synthesis route, but i suspect the real problem is that any purification steps are simply omitted resulting in something similar to krokodil. A key difference seems to be that sisa is mostly smoked while krokolil is injected. This doesn't make the whole ordeal safe in any way, but it may safe us from images of users where you see the bones in their forearms.
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To me, it looks like we have an uninformed author trying to create a "Krokodil 2.0" series. Their trying to create mystique around something where it does not exist. The author/Vice make true asses of themselves with this article IMO.
I think it's the druggies of Greece who think it's something new, and the drug lords who want that mystique as it sells.
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I doubt the mystique is much of a factor there, apparently this stuff sells for rock bottom prices ($2 a hit or so) on streets in greece.
Also, i suppose its produced domestically, since in most european countries peudoefedrine is sold OTC and that availability makes it an excellent starting point for both proper synthesis work and street quacks.
Proper analysis on the stuff is pending, but i presume its actually just badly cooked unpurified meth that people are smoking in greece right now. There is nothing new about that, unless you count the presence of unwanted, unreacted reagents as a novelty :D