Rogoredo, the discount store of hell
The Rogoredo forest is teeming with young people, some very young, looking for a cheap fix. The number of teenagers is growing. Simone Feder knows this; he's been coming to the Rogoredo forest every week for eight years, in the evenings, with a group of volunteers. The latest boy he placed in the community isn't even 13. Yet last night was different for him too, he wrote on his Facebook page. Last night he too asked, "What's happening? Why all these people, these young people?"
Giorgio's response, he writes, "chills me": "There's a war going on. A war between clubs, between gangs. And it's being fought with prices." Teenagers arrive attracted by discount offers, he explains over the phone: "10 euros a gram for heroin, 30 euros a gram for cocaine. Prices like those of a supermarket from hell. Prices that make drugs more accessible than a packet of sweets." These are the rules of the "market," applied to drugs: the aim is to build customer loyalty. Here, it's easy, thanks to addiction. An educator and psychologist, Feder coordinates the Youth and Addiction Area at the Youth Center in Pavia . "They're lowering prices, which means it's 'sowing' time. We need to monitor the situation carefully."
At all hours of the day and night—even very late—we see crowds arriving. "Many desperate mothers call us because their children are there," Feder continues. " There are people in the woods with whom we have stable relationships, who tell us that heroin is making a comeback, even when misused, causing people to get out of their veins ." Needles are back, everywhere.
This use—and the harmful substances contained in the cheap doses—cause those who inject heroin to become covered in sores and bruises all over their bodies. "There's a doctor who comes to help us in the evenings," says the psychologist. "In many kids, the untreated lesions turn into scary lacerations."
If heroin use had declined—or at least its use had become more covert—its presence is now more than evident on the streets . "You can find it at a bargain price, lower than hashish," comments Feder. "Kids are starting to smoke it with foil and then start shooting up. Use has become blatant: you can find people shooting up in the subway."
But what are the causes of this "cheekyness"? "There is a malaise that breaks down boundaries and limits," replies the educator, "which ensures that there is not even a minimum of respect for the context and for others."
A major social problem, therefore, that cannot be solved with repression. " We need to implement intervention policies that target not the marginalized, but marginalization; not the drug addict, but drugs ," says Feder. "We need to start moving beyond our own contexts, starting to inhabit certain spaces that are increasingly degraded; we need to inhabit these existential peripheries, which are also found in the heart of each person. So many young people today suffer from loneliness; they feel alone even among people."
Targeting the "death entrepreneurs" who speculate on the lives of young people is necessary, but it can't be done by targeting the consumer. Instead, they need answers, they need hope. They need someone to stop and look at them, truly, attentively, accepting and addressing their discomfort. "I've even seen kids as young as 15 or 16," Feder says, "arriving together, carrying backpacks. The forest is considered a meeting place, it's considered cool. Arriving in Rogoredo is almost an initiation rite."
Listen. This is the key. Reach out to young people who feel alone, create alternatives to the drugs that are becoming the only consolation for those experiencing hardship that no one can accept . Because, as Feder wrote in his Facebook post last night, "What worries me most, truly, is the love I see in the eyes of so many of these very young kids. Heroin isn't just a substance. For many, it's becoming a refuge. A ritual. A gesture of consolation. The hole that becomes an embrace, the embrace that becomes a trap. It's something that goes beyond addiction: it's a deadly bond, that holds them tight and never lets them go."
In the photo, Simone Feder in the Rogoredo woods. The photo is by Anna Spena , taken from the feature published in the July magazine: Anna spent a day with Simone Feder, including the evening in Rogoredo. If you have a subscription, read it here now .
- Tags:
- Addictions
- Young
- Rogoredo
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