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A crash course in changing the world.
Meet Kenny - heroine addicted in Oslo
My first Saturday Challenge was to go to my city at night and talk with a homeless person or a drug addict who is scrambling for money for his next shot.
I have to admit that I feel hesitant about posting this video here. In no way is my goal to sensationalize this. "Look! A drug addict!" The issue here is his life, and how there are lots of people like him around Norway and the world. How can they be helped? What can the society do for them?
So on Saturday night I went to Central Oslo where I found a guy selling =Oslo, which is a magazine which homeless people and a few other groups can sell. After talking with him for a while - his name is 'Kenny' - I asked him if it would be ok if I filmed him. He agreed to do it. He finds it important that the reality of drug addicts is spread, that their story is heard.
Here is the video without too much editing:
Meet Kenny from dltq on Vimeo.
Drug addicts in Norway are given a variety of different manners of help, and yet the group is still not being helped enough. There are quite a few homeless people in Oslo (I don't have specific numbers yet), and there are still far too many deaths from OD.
Kenny now lives in an apartment paid for by the city of Oslo. But he has earlier lived on the streets of Oslo for 2.5 years.
I asked Kenny off-camera two questions:
Q: Who inspires you?
A: Nick Cave
Kurt Cobain
Mom
Q: Where are you in 10 years?
If I don't get rid of my heroine addiction, I will most likely be dead. But my hope is that I will be off the drugs and have a normal life and be with my girl-friend.
In the film, I talk about the cost of his addiction. Every dose of heroine costs about 200 Kr (~ 33 US$), and if he needs 4 doses that makes a total of 132 US$ per day. 48180 US$ per year.
At the end of the night, in the morning, we parted ways. Kenny had no current phone number because his last phone got stolen, but I gave him mine and told him I wanted to stay in touch.
Kenny has authorised my use of this video material for EVOKE, and he sends you his regards. Meanwhile, he is right now begging for money or selling magazines to get enough money for his next shot.
Views: 1484
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Comment by Ithamar Samuel Eshpar on March 9, 2010 at 10:20am
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Thank you Raymond for this close-up view on one addict's life. I don't think you are sensationalizing, but rather showing Kenny as a regular person who is stuck in a pretty s***ty situation. Interesting and moving.
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Comment by Raymond M. Kristiansen on March 9, 2010 at 10:33am
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Thanks Ithamar - that's my goal too. To show his humanity while also showing the pretty bizarre things he has to do/does. Like standing there on a metro station and injecting the heroine into his body. Many stories have been told about the addicts, and many newspaper articles. I proposed to Kenny that we make a videoblog where we follow his life from here. He was eager to do it. I am still figuring out how that would work.
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i guess you should just keep filming him once in a while, and see what happens... I don't know if an addict's life can get interesting at all, or is it just a monotonous chase after money and heroin ): But I'm sure that if you keep meeting him once a week or even once a month, you'll get some real action at some point.
Sometime just the fact that they're being doc**ented can make people behave in a different way. Maybe he'll be motivated to make a real change in his life. Even if it'll be just "for the camera" in the beginning, it might create a chain reaction that could be dramatic...
I hope... (-;
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Actually, he really is motivated to have a change. But in the past, he has felt that "life went against him", and the addiction took control.
The problem with drug addicts who have been doing this for 10+ years (and he has been on heroin since he was 17 - he is 30 now) find themselves in a habit which is really hard to break out of. Such a shame.
But no, I wouldnt just make this a story of chase after money and drags - that would be very boring. It would be a story of his meeting with the society, his meeting with the doctors, his attempts to normalize his life, get a job later on, etcetc.
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Comment by Emil Dimitrov on March 9, 2010 at 2:52pm
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In Bulgaria these people are dangerous. I admire your courage!
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@Emil: They are dangerous here as well! But I believe in having faith in others. Naive? Maybe. But then again, I am for instance in Central Oslo, not Iraq or Russia.
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Comment by Jenn on March 9, 2010 at 6:47pm
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Wow, you did a terrific job, Raymond. And no worries, your work in no way comes across as exploitative or sensationalizing.
One of the things that surprised me so much was how much heroin costs! Street prices in the US are much much cheaper, but as Kenny points out, these are certainly not "clean" drugs. I found his comments on heroin purity really interesting and I had never thought about the fact that purer drugs would be more addictive. I'm still inclined to think they're safer though for the simple fact that you know what's in them. Most times, in the US at least, people have no idea what's in the drugs they're using which is really dangerous! (For example, one time you could have a really strong drug and not know it and easily OD.)
I'm really glad to hear that access to clean injection supplies is widespread (Raymond sent me an email about that. Yay, for Norway! The US is still really behind in this area.), and it sounds like since Kenny is in government housing, he's probably got folks looking out for him that can help him access services.
To touch on what we can do for people using narcotics, I think one really important thing is to increase mental health care. Of course prevention and treatment programs are vital, but the root cause of addiction is almost invariably related to mental health. In the US there are an incredible amount of barriers to accessing mental health care. One thing we can all do, even if we're not involved in healthcare, is fight stigma associated with mental health. I'd be really interested to hear other people's ideas, too!
Another thing that Raymond touched on that I want to bring up again is the issue of overdosing, which is all too common. In fact, it's likely a lot more common than we think because deaths due to overdoses are often labeled under "poisoning" in hospitals and emergency rooms. Many people, of course OD, without dying (a woman at my mom's work ODed yesterday. She was rushed to the hospital and is okay, but this happens more than you'd think.) but it is a really dangerous situation. Here is a link to a drug that can reverse OD's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naloxone. Here is an article about their success in Massachusetts: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eohhs2pressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&... (I used to do HIV/AIDS work at the Mass DPH.) Here is a link to an online game about overdosing: http://www.odgame.org/. If anyone wants more info, feel free to message me. :)
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Thanks all.
@Jenn Yes, tons of issues there, and lots to dig into. The fact that there already Are a lot of people doing something for homeless people / drug addicts in Oslo or elsewhere, doesnt mean that everyone is reached. Thats unfortunately a thinking that is quite common. "Someone is already taking care of that. No responsability for me!".
Yes, Kenny has finally found a good doctor. Not saying the earlier ones weren't good but the new one really seems to Listen to him. OD really is terrible. So many of them here. Oslo was once branded "The Heroin Capital of Europe". And this in a country which is one of the richest in the world.
@Paul: +1 is enough. I am glad it touched a chord for you. The most important is that it inspires us to see people as individuals, not part of a group, some nameless, faceless, identity. "Just another drug addict looking for money for his next fix".
@Michelle: I am sure there are drug addicts in Virginia too. Have you talked with any of them? Would you be willing to? Maybe bring a friend and the two of you together do some outreach. Or talk with an organization which does work for them. Interview them. Share the interview with us. Ask the for instance "What can we do so that drug addicts are given free injection supplies?".
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I think you should ask whatever question is relevant for your context. :) If cocaine abuse or prescription drug abuse is a bigger problem there, and you want to focus on that, go ahead!
If you are really brave, and feel comfortable with the camera, you can take a video of the interview. An experimentation with other media.
But do whatever feels natural for you! :) Excited to hear more stories of local conditions for drug addicts
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Comment by Annika Olofsdotter Bergström on March 11, 2010 at 8:05am
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Very good film. Short but so full of a life that went wrong. Kenny seems like he has a beautiful and sensitive soul.
Well Done Raymond.
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