As drug Synthetic are a growing nightmare on the island of São Miguel, in the Azores. The most recent He plunged into the underworld of these new drugs that cause severe psychotic outbreaks, hallucinations and sometimes irreversible brain injuries.
The SIC Chamber It is not welcome to the main place of drug use in fish tail. Aggressiveness and violence are common traits between those who consume synthetic drugs.
“Because they are disturbing drugs, they cause delusions and paranoia, the addict often attacks the family member or the people who are nearby, not with the sense of attacking him, but because he thinks he is defending himself,” he explains to SIC Suzete Frias, director general of Association Risks.
These drugs are cheaper and more accessible than traditional drugs, but cause an even more serious state of mental disorganization.
In the last decade, they have changed the paradigm of consumption on the island:
“It’s 60/70 times more powerful than traditional ones. Lately, seven new opioids have emerged and one of them is 140 times more powerful than morphine,” says Suzete Frias.
Psychotic outbreaks are increasingly frequent
Psychiatrist at Ponta Delgada Hospital, João Mendes Coelho admits that hallucinations and psychotic outbreaks are increasingly frequent in the emergency service. It admits, however, that “there is no pharmacological treatment for these new drugs.”
The scourge of synthetic substances affects, above all, populations with less performance and lower levels of education, such as fish tail.
In the Azores, the country’s highest poverty risk rate lives, which affects one in four inhabitants. And since the pandemic, synthetic drugs have spread throughout the island.
Trafficking in the middle of daylight on several streets is no longer ashamed.
Rafael, for example, It’s just another victim. Every day at the same time waits for the arrival of the methadone. It is several kilometers on foot to avoid consuming heroin, but synthetic drugs cannot be rid of.
When talking to the SIC team, the father of Rafel arrives and interrupts the interview because it has in your pocket what your child wants most.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh you are going to look for drugs from your son’ and I tell you the truth, I won’t be lying. What I am going to look for, but I don’t say where I get, but what I will look for is only for self-consumption, so that he does not steal and nobody hurts him,” justifies the parent.
Rafael lives alone, spends whole nights unable to sleep. Need at least 15 euros daily just to feed synthetic addiction. With the unemployed father, Rafael’s cognitive functions have already declined.
Fishing is the breadwinner of many Azoreans
Already Nelson left prison less than a year after seven years of imprisonment for drug trafficking. Methadone and work in fishing gave him a new opportunity, but prejudice does not help.
Eighty percent of the beneficiaries of the social income of insertion in the Azores are in São Miguel. Fishing remains one of the main sectors, but they say it has had better days and faces the risk of bankruptcy.
Those who live from the sea warn that the activation of ‘Fishing Background ‘ To compensate for the days without work.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, the unemployment rate in the Azores reached 2024 the best figure in the last 16 years: 5.6%, driven by tourism.
Many substances do not integrate drug law
It was the third consecutive year of records, with more than four million (4.3) of porch in the islands already known as one of the main routes of international trafficking.
Psychoactive substances, produced in China and in India, They are then packaged, especially in northern Europe, until they reach the door.
A significant part of these substances, and even the most prevalent in St. Michael, are not yet part of the drug law. This means that they are not in the tables of the Drug Fighting Law, where prohibited substances are listed, and thus are sold like any other normal product.
In the last 25 years, more than 1,000 new psychoactive substances have been signaled in the European space, of which only about 900 are in the tables. The United Nations warned of increased consumption of these synthetic drugs in various countries, including Portugal.
The Judiciary Police admits that the country can be used as a point of transformation and passage of synthetic drugs. The project to criminalize the new substances Psychoactives entered the Assembly of REpublic In December and still awaits green light.
Regional Government cut support for the main association of the Azores
The Association van Razão, the main institution to combat dependencies, travels the entire island. Accompanies and treats hundreds of people with additive behaviors and dependencies, mental illness and serious cases of social exclusion.
Due to synthetic, consumption on the island increased and public and private financing da risk They can no longer follow. This year, there was a new cut announced by the Regional Government.
Waiting lists will increase, warn the association, and problems can get worse.
Unlike the continent, in the Azores there are no assisted consumer rooms. “Maria” consumed on the street for 19 annualLost, however, the custody of the newborn daughter.
“I consumed during pregnancy, but then she was born and I saw that it was not correct to be consuming and she would be given for adoption and then I stopped. I realized that my daughter’s life is more important than the drug,” he tells SIC.
For eight months without consuming, “Maria” visits her daughter every day at the institution. Soon, and without relapses, you can left-left Back home, as medical examinations confirm that it has changed their lives.
Technical file
- Journalist: Pedro Freitas
- Image reporter: Filipe Melo
- Image edition: Ricardo Tenreiro
- Graphics: Isabel Cruz
- Production: Cátia Martins
- Coordination: Luís Gariapa
SIC Investigation: Tell us what deserves to be denounced through the email investigation@sic.pt.
