A harrowing but necessary report on new drug scourge in “Sisa: Cocaine of the Poor”

Nick Alhmark / Vice, “Sisa: Cocaine of the Poor” (2013)

Distressing to watch, yes, but this is a story that has to be told. VICE reporter Alex Miller visits Athens to investigate rumours of a new and dangerous drug that is spreading in popularity among the homeless and vulnerable and bringing havoc in its wake. The drug is called sisa (after the Persian word “shisha”, normally used in connection with smoking through water pipes) and it’s a mixture of crystal methamphetamine and various liquids like battery acid and other chemicals that would make most people’s hair stand on end. Interviewing a few drug addicts (including one very engaging young fellow called Konstantinos), health workers, an academic and a police officer, Alex uncovers a dreadful and often horrifying set of truths about the drug: it is highly addictive; the drug has severe side psychological effects including extreme violent behaviour that the perpetrator may be unaware of and not remember; the drug inflicts considerable physical damage on users and nearly every addict dies within a calendar year of taking the drug regularly; and the drug has become the No 1 choice of narcotics in a society wracked by poverty, high unemployment and a widespread deterioration in the Greek social structure thanks mostly to the country’s dire economic situation. In tandem with the breakdown of society and of the medical and other social welfare institutions that used to care for the homeless and vulnerable, the Greek government has resorted to the use of heavy-handed law and order methods to move drug addicts off the streets and away from public notice. Watching the police force people into vans to move them to the outskirts of Athens, I can’t help but feel that the police’s actions are rehearsals for future crackdowns on public rebellion and defiance, when the economic and political situation worsen, all schools, universities, hospitals and clinics close down, and more businesses close leading to even more unemployment and despair.

Miller does try to get a “balanced” view of the sisa epidemic by speaking to a police official among others whose responses to his questions can only be described as chilling. The fellow seems quite genuine in answering Miller’s questions but Miller himself appears to believe (as I do too) that the police officer may be mouthing a lot of spin to justify police actions against sisa addicts. Miller also speaks to an “anarchist”, dressed with a hood over his face and lit so that his features are entirely in shadow, who comes across to this viewer as a member of a gang patrolling its territory in Exarchia, a district in Athens.

The film grounds the sisa epidemic very firmly in the wider context of social and economic decay and increased political oppression and police violence. Economic austerity imposed on the Greek people from above to force them to pay for enormous debts that they did not generate and which the French and German governments at least should admit some responsibility for, as those governments sell huge amounts of military equipment and armaments to a small country that has not fought a major war against Turkey for nearly a century, is unfair and the nation should be allowed to default and decide itself how best to deal with its problems. Those politicians and others who brought Greece into the eurozone by fudging figures and who have not tacked the country’s unjust taxation system which leaves alone the very wealthy shipping industry and other business and economic elites while forcing small businesses to foot the taxation bill should be brought to account and punished appropriately. Being paraded in the streets while the public throws rotten food and cow shit at them would be one fit punishment.

The documentary ends with Miller’s summary of the situation and a warning that the Greek situation could spread to the rest of the European Union. Overall the film does a decent job in covering most aspects of the sisa epidemic in a not-very-original way – there’s an emphasis on a current-affairs style of reporting which suits the film’s shoe-string budget – and does not flinch from recording scenes of people smoking the drug or describing the physical horrors associated with the drug: abscesses filled with pus covering the skin and a bloated stomach are two such problems. The focus on a couple of addicts and Konstantinos in particular brings a very human dimension to the growing problem. The film tries to conclude on a positive note by concentrating on Konstantinos’s hopes for his future: he wants to be cured of his addiction, to hold a job and find a wife with whom he can raise a family. If only all his hopes can come true by this time (June) in 2014 but one fears he may not be lucky.

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