Overdoses versus deaths related to drugs

 By Leiv Holstad

According to Norwegian statistics on deaths related to drugs, more than 4000 young people died from overdoses on drugs between 1980 and 2008. When I produced the first Marita movie back in 1983/84, I focused on overdoses. In one of the movie scenes we fixed a drug addict’s funeral.

The coffin was lowered into the grave, and the song “Farewell Marita” could be heard while death notices with first name and age on many of my personal friends who died from overdoses were shown. To be sure that we had the right information I contacted the Police and was given access and permission to see the files on persons who at that time had became part of this tragic statistics.

That was a sad experience. I found the names of many I already recognized and knew about, but also names on more friends I still did not know had died. Among them I also found the name of the latest girlfriend I had when I was still on drugs.

When I came to my senses I asked the policeman: Are these all?

Yes, he answered. But I did not find “Jazzen” (The jazzy one) there? Well, I do not think he died from an overdose? The policeman said. No, he died from liver failure, I replied, but his liver was damaged by drug abuse. Neither did I find his wife, Sissel. She had been shot in a drug clash. Nils was not there either; the bus ran him down after taking some LSD. “Krølle” (The curly one) hanged himself in Oslo Prison when he was on a bad comedown. None of them died from overdoses, but they died due to other reasons, the policeman said. Therefore they are part of other statistics.

So what is my conclusion after all this? The deaths due to drugs are more than the statistics tell us. To even think about this could make us all lose courage, but actually we are quite many who survived! Through the effort of Marita Foundation and similar organizations, many have been helped out of a heavy drug abuse. In our web news you can find some stories concerning this.

In this way we have made this tragic statistics look a little less than it would appear otherwise. Thank you to all who join us in this battle!

 

Marita Bo and Care

Marita Bo and care is the foundation´s life training facilities targeting youth between 18-23 years of age.
The people living here is youth in the risk zone and danger of substance abuse or other kind of negative influence. They are lonely and need network, they need grown up contacts and follow up, and basically a safe and sound place of living.

Marita Bo and Care is situated in our main building in Holstsgt. 6 in Oslo where we have 15 rooms in 2 floors. This is not an ordinary rehab-program were the students stay together with staff 24 hours a day. On daytime they are in school, at work or in work-training, but we monitor their progress and eventual problems at the several places where they spend their day. We also have so-called resource-persons living together with them. This is young Christians who are role models in the daily life. They also take part in different activities in the evenings and weekends.

Marita Bo brochure  (pdf document, 1,4MB)