A drug addict gives deep insights into the Munich drug scene and the dangers of “herb” addiction. She calls on the government to act.
Munich – “I always panicked before injecting heroin. If you inject air, you’re dead”: Today’s 18-year-old Sarah M. lived for three months in the Munich drug scene around the main train station. Whether heroin, crystal meth or “herbal mixtures”, Sarah tried everything. “I consumed almost every hour. Herbs and Lyrica (painkillers editor’s note), if I got heroin, I did that,” she says in an interview with tz.de.
Munich drug scene at the main train station: Sarah M. was right in the middle
Sarah now wears her hair in a dark black. In the photos from last spring they are still blue. A nose piercing adorns her narrow face, her arms are full of white lines. “Slitting and squirting heroin,” she explains. We are sitting outside in the sun in a Bavarian restaurant. Their scars glow white in the sunlight. Sarah starts talking right away. “I came here and I was immediately asked if I wanted herbs.” It points towards the corner of Arnulfstraße/Seidlstraße. The temptation was great, luckily she was able to resist it. At least today.
–Before our appointment, Sarah M. bought his painkillers from a pensioner at Sendlinger Tor
She is still not completely “clean”. “I’ll be honest, I’m still consuming,” she admits, taking a blister pack of pills out of her pocket. “I took two Lyrica earlier.” She bought the prescription pain medication from a pensioner at Sendlinger Tor. “I used to take five of them, it’s like heroin.” Despite the drugs, she seems composed. Determined to tell her story. “It makes me so angry that the drug problem in Munich is so suppressed.”
Drug problem in Bavaria: a person dies every one and a half days
Every one and a half days someone in Bavaria dies from illegal drugs. According to police crime statistics, there were 255 people in 2021. Seven more than the year before. According to Josef Strohbach from the drug addiction aid Condrobs in Munich, the main reason is taking different drugs at the same time. “These people are seldom addicted to just one substance, and they don’t die from that single substance, but mostly from poly-drug use,” he says tz.de. “It can then be fatal.”
Sarah suspects that some of her people from before have already died. Her hands are shaking slightly as she talks about it. “I don’t know how many are still alive here, the people from before are all gone.” Disappeared or died? Sarah doesn’t know. However, she is convinced that nobody would find the bodies in the parking garages anyway.
Sarah takes drugs while she is in the clinic in Munich
At the age of 13, Sarah started hurting herself because a close confidante sexually molested her. She is sent to a clinic because of suicidal thoughts. After attempting suicide, she ends up in a Munich clinic, the Heckscher Clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry. There, after being released to a shelter, she began to consume at the age of 15. The drugs, a “solution” she was desperately looking for. “It was so nice I could get stoned away.” She smiles sadly.
–Sarah is accommodated in different clinics, lives in different shelters. Again and again she sneaks away and spends several weeks at a time on the street. At the beginning, Sarah consumes alcohol and cannabis. The high makes her feel safe. One day she cannot reach her dealer. To get cannabis, she goes to Schillerstrasse. She had heard of the call of the “drug street”. “They laughed at me and said they only sell herbs here, so I bought that.” She takes way too much of that. “I couldn’t get up, couldn’t move.”
“Herbal mixtures” one of the most dangerous drugs?
“Herbal mixtures” are therefore the hardest drug for Sarah. “I also injected heroin, which is also blatant, but the body doesn’t get used to herbs, it’s more violent every time.” A spokesman for the Munich health department says tz.de on request that these are “mixtures of plant parts that have been mixed with artificially produced active ingredients – mostly synthetic cannabinoids – and the exact ingredients of which are not known”. Strohbach from Condrobs can confirm that. This is exactly why the drug is so dangerous, because you never know exactly what you are actually taking.
–Sarah M: “I then prostituted myself in the parking garage”
Because of her dependency, Sarah gets severe withdrawal symptoms. “Sometimes I couldn’t walk anymore, I had stomach cramps and I was in the hospital once.” At some point she needed more and more. “You say yes to everything, you can no longer defend yourself.” During that time, she was often sexually abused. Once she called a dealer who promised her herbs. “Then he raped me in a container in a field.” Another traumatic experience, through which she falls further and further into the drug scene.
Little by little she runs out of money. “I then prostituted myself in the parking garage, sometimes for 20 euros.” And that was only to get herbs – she was 17 at the time. Sarah is disgusted with herself.
“I then prostituted myself in the parking garage, sometimes for 20 euros.”
Drug addicts hide in Munich parking garages
Last year Sarah met a man. He rapes her, but since he has herbs, she stays with him. Sometimes ten of them lived in a one-room apartment. “We had no money and almost no food.” The apartment was dirty and full of bugs and maggots. “You ignore that when you’re on herbs, you don’t care. You become a beetle yourself.” She talks about that time with disgust. “When we ran out, we used tweezers to search the carpet for herbs.”
Many consume in Munich in parking garages or underground garages, in addition to puke and urine. By suppressing the drug problem, users would hide in parking garages. Dealers and clients rape minors there, like Sarah did a year ago. She is therefore calling on the government to take action.
Drug consumption rooms a solution? Bavaria refuses
Sarah would like the police to openly acknowledge the problem “that people talk about it”. It shouldn’t be hushed up. In addition, drug consumption rooms, also known as fixer rooms, would help. There, addicts can bring their drugs with them and consume them on site. They also get clean cutlery and medical supervision. Sharing an injection with another woman, Sarah caught hepatitis C. Rooms like this could have prevented that.
“Experiences from other cities and scientific studies show that drug consumption rooms are suitable for preventing drug-related deaths,” says the spokesman for the health department. The city of Munich would like to create such spaces, as confirmed by Strohbach and the health department. However, the decision lies at the state level, the Bavarian state government refuses.
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Sarah tries a new beginning – “I have a goal”
Once police officers caught Sarah with heroin. Her punishment: half a year of family counseling, half a year of addiction counseling. “It’s good that I have someone to talk to.” She has now reported her ex-boyfriend, who is now in custody for rape.
Sarah moved back in with her mother and went into rehab. Now she wants to catch up on her school-leaving certificate and dare to start again in another city. Where nobody knows her. “It’s a stop for me because I have a goal,” she says tz.de. She wants to train as a landscape gardener and eventually work as a “street worker” to get minors out of the drug scene. “There are so many young people in the scene, with so much potential.” Once she has the strength and is completely clean, Sarah wants to help. (tkip)
You can find more current news from Munich and the region at tz.de/muenchen.
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