Daphne
Written by : Astrid Forschner
Daphne is one of the most important people within our movement. Besides doing a lot of work for the Greek user organisation, PeerNUPS, she leads our women’s working Group and also currently she is the chairwoman of EuroNPUD.Without her, I feel we would’th have achieved as much as we have. One can call her an activist literally, because that’s what she is: very active. She is in adulthood now, but if one talks to her, one has the Impression of a much younger person, you can feel the energy she has. Also she’s got a sweet and caring personality. I am a fan of her myself.
Daphne was born to a family of theater artists and language professors, who was atheistic, which is very rare in Greece. As a child, Daphne was acting, too. One can imagine that the circumstances she was living in were rather chaotic.So no wonder at all she was looking for something reliable in her live. As many of us do, when the soul needs a cushion, Daphne discovered drugs at the age of 16. At first, she took LSD on a regular basis. At that age, she left home and went to Ios, which used to be a Party Island in Greece, and at this time, was a station for hippies on the passage to India. There she stayed the summer, then moved back to Athens, where she started shooting H.
In these days, as many of us remember, it was common use to share needles, because clean ones were hard to get. So no wonder she caught Hepatitis C and B. For this she went to hospital. There she had to stop using of course. Once out, she started shooting again. This lasted until she turned 19.In the abstinence intereim, she met her husband, began to publish poetry and short stories which often had drug use as a theme. Annother theme was woman’s position in our world. She says she has been a feminist ever since she was a young girl. Her first book of poetic prose was published then, too, at 19 and has published six books and many articles until now.
Daphne and her husband decided to leave Greece and went to London, UK when she was 20. In London she went back to school to finish her education, supported by her parents. Reading, studying, meeting new people and movements and travelling she felt very grateful for that chance in her life after her very tough teen years.
She restarted to use her faourite drug, H, at the age of 26, and at 28, she was a heavy user. It took her about ten years to learn to to control her use, as quite a few of us do, and became abstinent again at the age of 42. She says that ever since then, it became easier to control the use and become a fully functional drug user not missing because of her use all else that she loves in life.
I asked her about her drug of choice, and she says that it is H, cocaine for parties, and she adores a ‘speedball’- coctails (H mixed with coke) the most. Just like me, she does not like Cannabis at all. She says she never fell out of society for her habit, never became homeless or went to jail, never stole or cheated. I feel she just was too smart for that, plus she never let the use damage her character.
To understand Daphne, one has to know that there are three major drives in her life: literature, feminism and drug policies. To be a feminist is as natural to her as breathing . Annother big drive is her engagement in drug policies. She feels that she is privileged with her use, and that she just has to keep trying to change the rigid drug laws in her country, because they inflict so much harm to users and their families. She also feels that prohibition violates human rights.
Daphne presents her latest book in one of her radio shows
So, in 2010 she started using the blog she had created for herself to write about drugs and drug use. It must have been read by other users who wished to unite in an organisation, so they came to Daphne and asked her if they could use the articles she had written. She got to meet more people who wanted to resist the drug laws in Greece and therefore organize. Drug laws were and are very tough in Greece, and users are stigmatised and abused by law and Police. They still are sentenced to long time jailing, families are harassed and separated by detention. So, in 2016 they founded PeerNUPS and Daphne was a founding member.
PeerNUPS is a users organisation which struggles to resist and maybe change the Greek drug laws. Methadone still is not easy to get in Greece, impossible to receive in most jails, mothers who use drugs are separated from their children, long jail sentences ruin lives, and on top of it users are stigmatised, despised and looked down upon.
For this insulting manner there is an example that happened to Daphne herself. For a period in her live, she got sick of cancer and therefore went to hospital. There she had to fill out a form where one is asked about the live circumstances. Daphne openly admitted ;intravenus use’, and as soon doctors and personnel had read it, they began to treat her very disrespectfully and demeaningly. She got treated all right, she fought and won the fight against cancer, but she has not forgotten the way people interacted with her. This must be changed in Greece, and pronto.
In this way, the Greek, as nice and hospitable they are, must change this middle age outlook on drug use. That is hard to do, and maybe PeerNUPS would do good to get prominent people to join their ranks. For the time being, PeerNUPS has teamed with civil societies, creating a platform of organisations with the same goals. They do street work, try to influence policy and attempt to beat the stigmatising of users. It can’t be that users activists still have to hide their faces and can not speak openly for fear of repressions to themselves and their families.
