Fixpunkt Berlin: Supporting people who use drugs in Berlin

A harm reduction organisation is on the frontline of helping those marginalised people who use cocaine and heroin on the streets – Read our report from Berlin and watch our short film about the drug consumption van by Fixpunkt!

“How could I speak to her, she is a drug user,” says the irritated security guard, pointing his finger at a homeless woman sitting on a bench at the metro station.

“Just how you would speak to me, or to anybody else, as a matter of fact”, responds the equally irritated social worker, a young woman.

Similar conflicts happen regularly in the Berlin underground, where an increasing number of homeless people find shelter and use crack in the cold winter.

The clash of two worlds. Security guards are tasked with removing homeless people from the metro stations. Social workers are tasked with supporting them and helping them to enter the treatment system. Conflicts are inevitable. Even if there are some overlapping aims, for example that the social workers are also interested in persuading their clients not to use the metro. Crack use is on the rise in Berlin, a consequence of the cocaine wave that hit Europe in recent years. The drug is more available than ever and has become the drug of choice for many marginalised people who try to escape the suffering of street life by getting high.