EXPENSIVE OSLO IS CHEAP FIX CAPITAL

In a Country Where Drugs Cost Less Than Alcohol, Heroin Addiction Is
Causing Growing Alarm To Norwegian Authorities

Oslo- Its standard of living was officially recognised this week as the
best money can buy but oil-rich Norway has a darker, less publicised claim
to fame: Oslo has become Europe's drug overdose capital and is awash with
heroin.

The city is infamously expensive. A pint of beer will set you back UKP 5, a
pack of cigarettes UKP 5.50 and even a Big Mac costs close to UKP 3.
Heroin, however, is relatively cheap-one tenth of a gram costs about the
same as 20 Marlboro.

The drug's relative affordability - it has halved in price in the last
decade - has seen thousands of ordinary Norwegians develop a habit with
fatal consequences. Every fifth autopsy carried out by the city coroner now
reaches the same depressing conclusion: death by drug overdose.

Oslo has the record of drug related deaths out of 42 European cities,
according to a report by the Council of Europe's Pompidou Group, set up in
1971 to study drug abuse and trafficking.

Some 338 Norwegians died from drug overdoses last year (114 of them in
Oslo) compared with just 75 in 1990. The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol
and Drug Research estimates that the number of intravenous users has
doubled in the last decade to 14,000.

Norway, experts agree, is in the grip of a heroin epidemic.

These statistics contrast sharply with the picture painted by the United
Nations human development report this week which for the second year
running concluded that life expectancy, education and healthcare in Norway
was better than anywhere else.

One explanation for the high death rate is the injecting culture. "Contrary
to many other countries Norwegian drug addicts inject themselves with
heroin rather than smoke it," says Ketil Bentzen, deputy director general
at the ministry of social affairs. "Nor do they take it on its own. They
mix it with pills such as Rohypnol and alcohol and that's deadly."

"A number of deaths also occur after people are discharged from
institutions such as prisons," he adds. "After Iceland we have the highest
number of residential treatment facilities in the world."

Despite the fact that possession, use and trafficking of drugs is illegal
and punishable by a maximum prison term of 21 years, the drug scene in Oslo
is startlingly open.

A hotdog kiosk, a stone's throw from Oslo central station, is the focal
point for addicts and pushers. It stands next to a bus and a tram stop and
at first glance the crowds of people look like they are waiting for public
transport.

But the buses come and go and the people, who whisper to one another and
draw deeply on roll-up cigarettes, stay. There are between 100 and 150
addicts hanging around the kiosk at any given time, closely observed by
police surveillance cameras. An estimated 500 to 600 people visit the kiosk
every day.

The addicts, whose emaciated faces poke from hooded tops or sweatshirts,
look like the tortured Norwegians painted by Edvard Munch. Their eye
sockets are large and lifeless and they reek of desperation.

"It's like something out of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables," says Trym
Skarra, a city council social worker on standby to deal with overdoses.

His colleague, Anja Helland, adds: "Most of them started when they were
young at between 12 and 15. Beer is so expensive here that it's cheaper to
buy drugs. We have people who overdose almost every day. It's suicide."

According to Knut Reinaas of the League against Intoxicants, addicts are
injecting themselves with bigger doses and more frequently - up to 10 times
per day.

Christer, a 32-year-old speed dealer who has been abusing drugs since the
age of 12 and whose wrists and arms are punctured with needle scars, is
typical of many. He uses heroin, speed, Rohypnol and hashish, knows the
risks but doesn't care.

"My friend died of an overdose two days ago. He had just got out of
prison," he mumbles. "Of course I'm worried. I've had 20 overdoses myself
but this is my happiness and it's better to die than lead this fucking life."

A police station sits on the same square as the kiosk - Christian Frederiks
Plass - but its occupants leave the addicts to their own devices for the
most part.

A small park on the square is littered with the paraphernalia of drug
addiction; spoons for heating heroin and silver foil for packing it, but
the real action takes place at Oslo's docks.

Behind a corrugated iron building, which used to be a terminal for ferries
to Denmark, lies Oslo's most infamous shooting gallery.

The scene is stark. One man stretches out while another thrusts a needle
into his neck and scores of addicts lie on the ground, savouring their hit.
A tinny stereo blares out as the junkies inject one another before
collapsing. They pay little attention to passers-by and the ground is
strewn with used syringes.

The government is so concerned, says Mr Bentzen, that it is drafting an
emergency action plan to present to parliament in October.

Tova Boygard, who helps to hand out some of the 1.8m syringes distributed
free every year, says all kinds of Norwegians are doing heroin now.

"We get all kinds of people aged 18 to 80, including people in suits who
you'd never suspect," she says. "Maybe it's something to do with the
Norwegian mentality. We have a reputation that we like to drink and overdo
it and maybe it's the same with drugs."

Mr Bentzen is philosophical about the future. "It's not difficult to detox
an addict," he muses. "The real challenge is to find something with which
to replace their addiction and the government is unable to distribute the
meaning of life."