JACOB GLUCKMAN

Organisation: No institution

Titre: Empowerment for drug users

The paper concerns the recent growth of representative groups for illegal drug users. The emphasis will be on the West German umbrella organization JES (Junkies, Ex-Users and Substitutees) and the groups which comprise it e.g. Köln Junky-Bund, Junky-Bund Deutschland e.V., Junkie Oase Essen, Nürnberg Junkie-Bund, Ober-Schwabing Drogen Forum etc.

This expansion is part of the movement towards "empowerment", that is the shifting of activism from professionals to those whom they are trying to help.

In the FRG, the core activists are those who are HIV+ and or receiving substition drugs e.g. methadone and remedacen (a codeine based preparation).

The paper will describe the structure of JES and affiliates, how it works, what it does and what its aims are. Similar groupsin the early mid-80s were mostly unable to survive because of (a) the user-activists were unable to commit time to the project because of the need to obtain "stuff" and (b) the unsympathetic attitude of significant administrators in the drug field.

The durability of the present arrangement is linked to the concept of "referent public..." Lipset) which De Jong utilized in this field. Whereas in Rotterdam, the Junky Bud were able to find a sympathetic "referent public" in the Catholic Church, in the case of JES and affiliates, it has been the National Aids-Help group, (Deutsche Aids-Hilfe) and the regional Aids-Help groups (e.g. Essen Aids-Hilfe) which have created the space necessary for the otherise marginalized intravenous drug-users.

As welle as describing some of the achievements of group, the difficulties will also be mentioned e.g. the high turnover of activists, the preponderance of substitutees in the groups as opposed to current users, problematic relations with the gay activists in the Aids-Help groups. Although it is fashionable among professionals working in the Aids field to talk of "empowerment" in practise there are difficulties, and these I will comment on.

In addition, reference will also be made to groups in other countries e.g. the Netherlands and Great Britain. FES are trying to develop international contacts following the succes of their delegation's visit to the Madrid Positive Conference in May 1990.

However, generally the emergence of these groups promises much; how they fare will partly depend on a sympathetic response from those employed in the drugs field. It was the lack of such a reponse that led to the demise of the earlier German groups especially the Berlin Junky Bund.

Apart from the succes of the Dutch groups which be briefly described, the German groups have been able to achive more than any previous organizations of this type. Just what they have done so far, I would sketch in; the chance to take part in local politics (at least in the drug field) as in Nuremberg; the exhibition (on tour to 7 German cities) about German drug refugees in Amsterdam; the increased profile in the national and regional media; development of contacts with the health bureaucracies etc. and last but not least regular meeting.

Method-

The research for this paper is mainly based on the work for the two films which I have made in West Germany, "Legalize It! - Neue Wege in der Drogenpraxis", and "Leben mit Drogen: JES". This second film has been made for JES with some financial support from various AIDS foundations among others.

I myself take in JES activities.

This paper would be an updated and improved version of the one I gave at the first International Harm Reduction Conference in Liverpool in April 1990.

In addition I have written articles which have been published in various small journals: in the FRG, GB, the Netherlands and Canada.