Posted on 12/20/2004 12:24:18 PM PST by gopwinsin04
Tucked away in a quiet corner of this Dutch port city, Senior en pand looks like an ordinary retirement home. Comfortable sofas huddle around a television set in the lounge.
Puzzles and tattered paperbacks fill the shelves nearby. Residents chat about the weather over tea and coffee. But this retirement home has a twist. In the bedrooms, the elderly get high on heroin and cocaine.
'Ive been using drugs most of my adult life, and I cant stop now,' says Jan Gert, a 62 year old resident. 'Being old doesn't mean your addiction just goes away.'
Three other Dutch cities-Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht are setting up similar refuges for their own ailing addicts, and policymakers around Europe are watching the experiment. Funded by the city of Rotterdam and a semi private medical foundation, it is the first retirement home for drug addicts.
Though encouraged to consume fewer drugs, residents are free to buy heroin and cocaine on the street. The main aim is to help them see out their final years in comfort and diginity.
Outside contractors do the cooking and the cleaning. Medical staff visit regularly, and a social worker is on hand around the clock. In the Netherlands, where addicts recieve free medical care and methadone from the state, half the users are now over 40, and many are in their 60's.
To an outsider, the blend of domesticity and hard core drugs can seem almost surreal. One resident has a set of needles for knitting and another for injecting heroin.
Henny, 51 listens to Bach CD's. Arranged neatly on his desk are his phone, books, family photos-and a plastic sashet filled with brown residue. 'That was the herion I snorted last night, he said, holding up the tiny bag. 'It was pretty good stuff.'
'Old addicts are just like other old people,' said Carmel, 58. 'All we want is a safe quiet place where we can get on with our lives.'
Don't worry. In a few years (very few) the Muslems will introduce euthenasia to help these folks out in their golden years.
And the euthanasia will probably be taxpayer supported as well..
I didn't think drug abusers lived long enough to become senior citizens.
They're up there with the "old hookers" rest home..
Thanks for the vision.
In the Dutch lands, it looks like they are all growing old with free health care..
I bet heroin works wonders for rheumatoid arthritis.
'Nympho Hills' retirement village?
you're welcome....
How about a retirement home for alkies? Could be a swinging place..
Whatever..but you can bet it shows a profit..
Not if the 'gentlemen of lesiure' come to get their fair share, the place would need 24 hour security up the wazoo
I just want the Viagra franchise..
You could retire on that vending contract right there..
'Old addicts are just like other old people,' said Carmel, 58. 'All we want is a safe quiet place where we can get on with our lives.'
Should read "all we want is a safe quiet place where we can get high" Junkies dont have lives.They just live for the next shot of "junk".
Ahhhhhhhhhh,
The easier, softer way.
That, and the lip gloss contract for Fox News..
A report from the imagination. I also like the vision, tho.
I had to do a double take on this one. Forty, fifty, and sixty year olds in an "Old Folks Home"??
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