CHECK Berlin / Brandenburg #5

SOCIETY
a non-scientifically-based drug policy harbors
very real dangers: for our health as well as for
our society.
DRUG-CHECKING
The body of a sixteen-year-old ballerina reacts
differently to an ecstasy pill than the body of
a forty-year-old sumo wrestler. Nevertheless,
both of them buy a pill from a dealer in a club
that evening and take it. Have they consulted
their doctors beforehand? Hardly likely. Are
both taking a risk that could seriously endanger
their health? Certainly. As the chance that
so-called drug checking will be offered on site
Foto: Wyron_unsplash.com
in the club is pretty slim. With drug checking,
illegally acquired substances can be checked
for their ingredients before consumption. The
first offer for this was set up in the Netherlands
more than 25 years ago. It is now officially offered
in Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France and
other countries. The psychiatrist Dr. med. Felix
Betzler, Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
at the Charité in Berlin, told the Deutsches
Ärzteblatt: “From a medical point of view, drug
checking makes perfect sense because we
know that consumption is taking place anyway.
Our interest in the sense of harm reduction is
of course that the consumers know as much as
possible about the risks.”
SAFETY FIRST!
At the global level, a movement has made itself
heard in recent years that makes very specific
demands. The Global Commission on Drug
Policy was founded in January 2011 by a group of
personalities from America and Europe. These
include former heads of state and government
such as César Gaviria, former President of
Colombia, Ruth Dreifuss, the former Federal
President of Switzerland as well as Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan (1938-2018).
The organization calls for a new global drug
policy that is based on scientific knowledge
and takes compassion, health and human
rights into account.
T
EBERSWALDER
K ASTANIEN
S C H Ö N H A U S E R A L L E E
U
PAPPEL
D A N Z I G E R S T R A S S E
T
KNA ACK
U2 / TRAM M 10
EBERSWALDER
STRASSE
LYCHENER
HIV · HEPATITIS · PREP
DIABETOLOGIE · MIKROBIOM
TRANS*/ENBY SENSIBILISIERT
DANZIGER STRASSE 5
10435 BERLIN
TELEFON 030 / 442 77 67
MO—FR 8.00—19.00 UHR
SA 8.30—14.00 UHR
SCHÖNHAUSER
APOTHEKE
Inhaberin: Astrid Rehbein e. Kfr. · Filialleitung: Nico Reinold
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CHECK BERLIN/BRANDENBURG #5 43