Dacia Maraini visits the Villa Marini-Cri anti-drug center in Rome

(ANSA) – ROME, 03 OCTOBER – “It is the first time I have come to Villa Maraini and I have found a lot of enthusiasm and desire to change the lives of those who have fallen into the drama of drugs and all other pathological addictions. I am firmly convinced that substance users should not be criminalized, much less imprisoned, because they are people with an illness that must be treated in facilities like this, not in prisons”. The writer Dacia Maraini said it this morning during her visit to the anti-drug center Villa Maraini-Cri. Welcomed by the founder Massimo Barra and the president Gabriele Mori – reports a note -, after knowing the philosophy of intervention and the numbers of the action carried out by the Foundation in favor of substance users (700 people welcomed and supported every day in the Capital), explored the topic of the humanitarian policy on drugs that Barra has been proposing for almost 50 years. The tour of the 14 different services that Villa Maraini-CRI offers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to anyone who needs them, also saw moments of discussion both with users in treatment and with ex-drug addict social workers who gave testimony direct effectiveness of the treatment method. “.. to make you understand how you can change a person’s life, think about how some time ago I brought methadone to a drug addict incarcerated before the trial in a safety cell at the Court here in Rome and I found a writing on the wall that I had I did it when, over 30 years ago, they arrested me for crimes linked to my heroin addiction” said Marcello, a social worker from the Foundation’s Emergency Service, speaking to Maraini. “Today a double pleasure: having received Dacia Maraini, an illustrious writer, but also a person related to the Maraini family who – said Barra – donated the buildings in which our care services are located. In general for us receiving visits is always a celebration, because it provides us with the opportunity to promote our philosophy of intervention, showing in the field the beneficial effects not only for the people treated but also for their families and society in general”. (HANDLE).