A letter from home

The devastating effects of drug use have not been stemmed since last century to date. This is a project on the personal journey of residents of an Italian rehabilitation community for drug addicts.

According to the United Nations’ World drug report 2021, “drug use killed almost half a million people in 2019, while drug use disorders resulted in 18 million years of healthy life lost, mostly due to opioids. In 2020, around 275 million people have used drugs, up by 22% from 2010.”

The devastating effects of drug use have not been stemmed since last century to date

Therapeutic communities (TCs) for addictions, methadone maintenance therapy or detox programs are examples of answers to drug addiction problems. TCs aim at the reinsertion into society through the change toward a drug-free life in the outside society.

Overall, around 2,500 facilities using TC-type interventions were identified in 2011 across Europe, of which 708 in Italy. San Patrignano is an Italian long-term drug recovery residential community, considered among the largest and most successful worldwide. 26,000 people hosted since 1978, more than 4000 years of prison converted in rehabilitation programs in 25 years.

“Ours, if we really need a definition, is a community against social marginalisation”, Vincenzo Muccioli, the founder said.

These photos are part of an ongoing project launched in 2021 on the rehabilitation, educational and personal development of residents. Since 2021, I spent on average two days per month with residents who work in the kennels, one of the 35 activity areas of the community. At every moment they face their own limits, fears, frailties, the need to mediate between their own needs and those of other members of the community.

The "senior" residents, nearing the end of their journey, try to help the "young" ones to recognize the mechanisms of addiction and get away from the cage of the negative habit.

For the first year, letters represent the only contact with the outside. No distraction allowed: energy and time are needed to rebuild hope. Sharing emotions is the key. It is a hard, deep and long fight with not predictable ending.

Not getting letters feeds insecurity, on the other hand letters can be hard to read, especially the first ones. There are often human relations to be reconstructed, or, at least, to be understood, particularly within the family. It is hard to overcome anger, so writing a letter is not just an act of will, it means finding the courage to be true, reading our thoughts, accepting one's own and others' weaknesses, breaking free.