THE WORLD Barcelona

Barcelona

Updated Sunday, March 31, 2024-01:18

The scene portrayed in the image that illustrates this article took place on Good Friday in Barcelona. It was six thirty in the afternoon on Las Ramblas and, at the confluence of the mythical Barcelona artery with Tallers Street, a drug addict was injecting himself with narcotics as a family with children passed by, who were fixating their gaze on the syringe and the bloody arm. of the drug addict, who, in turn, tried to hide his harsh reality from the minors. The police presence was abundant, as traffic was cut off for the passage of an Easter procession, describes the author of the photograph,

Gorka Loinaz

.

Drug consumption on public roads in the center of Barcelona and, especially in the Raval neighborhood, has increased in recent years, provoking protests from residents, who in 2022 achieved a 20% increase in police officers with their complaints. the Guàrdia Urbana in the area, also characterized by the presence of drug dealers. Police pressure has caused the majority of these properties to currently act as points of sale, but not for consumption, which transfers them to the streets of the city.

According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, in the last quarter of 2023, crimes related to drug trafficking in Barcelona increased by 7.3% compared to the same period of the previous year, with 1,711 of these violations being recorded.

Researchers from the Hospital del Mar and the Trias i Pujol Hospital have detected the incipient presence of fentanyl, the powerful opiate that is ravaging the US, in the urine of drug addicts in the Catalan capital.

Last September, the leader of Vox in Barcelona City Council,

Gonzalo de Oro

, already demanded a protocol to detect the consumption of this drug in the city. «We do not want to see images like those seen in the United States. "We don't want Barcelona to become a

zombie

city ," he argued.

The president of the PP in Barcelona,

​​Daniel Sirera

, also denounced last week that the City Council's action plan on drugs and addictions "is failing" and called for more police presence.