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8 - Post dependency: What next?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2022

Daniel Briggs
Affiliation:
Universidad Europea de Valencia, Spain
Rubén Monge Gamero
Affiliation:
Universidad Europea de Valencia, Spain
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Summary

We return to a familiar spot of ours, sitting on the concrete stumps next to the church. Out comes Julia from the tent and removes Juan's rucksack as he wipes his lightly perspiring brow from our long walk around the area. She sits on a stump opposite us and rapidly makes up a heroin injection, placing half the hit in another syringe for Juan. Giving it to him, he places it behind his ear and starts to study her neck as if he were a DIY man making an assessment on where best to drill a hole in the wall. Drilling is what it looks like as he asks her to hold her breath to help summon the vein in her neck. She hugs her arms tight like a little girl might as if she were to receive her first inoculation. Yet this is not her first. As he gently tilts her to one side, her face turns red and he lightly jabs the needle around in her neck only for it to fill slightly with blood. He withdraws from his first attempt and reminds her to keep still – though she hasn't moved – and returns to his position. We peer over looking at the blood trickle down her neck slightly as Juan gently digs around for the vein. No luck. He mops his brow again and looks around the barren landscape for inspiration, takes a breath and returns to his position. We move around the other side watching Julia's eyes fill with fear, yet a kind of trust at the same time. Seconds later, Juan's skill pays off as he injects the bloody solution into her neck.

Juan then sits down on the same stump and pulls up his stained jumper with the syringe between his teeth. Placing it over a very visible vein, within five seconds he has made the injection and even lets it hang there on display for five minutes or so, returning to it from time to time to draw out blood before injecting it back in. He makes a resigned smile at us and the large gaps appear in his mouth where teeth have fallen out through malnutrition.

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Chapter
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Dead-End Lives
Drugs and Violence in the City Shadows
, pp. 203 - 238
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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