Dr Pedro Seijo is director of the Outpatient Addiction Treatment Centre (CTA) in Villamartín. Council of Cádiz, Spain
Dr Seijo made a journey thought time focusing on drug use, specifically opiates. He used historical events in our country and some of the most emblematic films specific of this genre. In doing so, he highlighted how the consideration of drug use has changed in Spain. He pointed out that from the addressing of “drugs have always been with us” that helps us understand the beginnings of drug consumption in humanity, in our recent history, we can situate the change that began in 1975 coinciding with a historical event known as “the Spanish Transition”, which allowed for the opening up in Spain. That was a time of joy, freedom and artistic explosion. The influence arrived from other countries brought custom, music expression, cinema and culture, as well as heroin use. Drug use became widespread and was expressed in a jocular atmosphere known in the cultural sphere as “la movida”. In this atmosphere, social alarm soon aroused, banks and pharmacies were robbed, pedestrians were assaulted, and concluded in the public insecurity that characterised the decade of the 80s and the 90s of the previous century.
The cost in human lives was high, bot due to adulteration and heroin overdoses, a situation that was reflected in the films and music of those years. The “quinqui” film genre depicted the biography of these drug consumers along with the idiosyncratic terminology that accompanied their consumption. The cinema, television and the street narrated this problem, while health centres were unable to address to what was called “a heroine epidemic”, characterised by the increase in cases of hepatitis and the appearance of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS. From that moment on, a great health effort had to be made to implement resources, treatment, social insertion, etc.
The language and notions changed; in those decades, only detoxification and relapse were considered and the main concern of Spaniards, after unemployment, was drugs. The concepts of hard drugs vs. soft drugs were introduced. The treatment of opiates began to be regulated, methadone was used and the debate returned to the streets: should one drug be exchanged for another? The treatment proposed was always “drug-free”.
In the 90s, the decade known as “the decade of the brain”, there was a great boost for addiction research: neurophysiological mechanisms were established, new treatments, the need to evaluate and treat at the same time, the need to research in clinical and fundamental science, the need to provide specific treatment systems and centres. Thus, we have now come to have treatments to alleviate withdrawal syndrome, to contemplate the existence of centres and low-demand treatments.
In the 21st century, the wave of legalisation of marijuana has arisen, to which many countries are acceding. We know that, when a drug is consumed legally, consumption increases and “legal highs” have become popular, which are at the limits of legality. We have other types of addictions, on-line gambling with sports betting, which is already considered the heroin of this century. And new forms of consumption are emerging, such as “chemsex”. These changes force us to continue studying what they are like and where they are leading us, to adapt to the social demands of these times, and in short, to continue training and researching and to continue working.
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