The dirt road leading off the highway is rutted, rocky and en- crusted with used syringes. They won t go farther, nor do they need to. The addicts come to them. Each addict has a registration number, which the volunteers scribble down as they pass out their goods. Ilchenko s group provides condoms as well as two types of syringes.
Small syringes are for heroin users.
Larger Ones are for those who shoot a far cheaper brew of amphetamines and other drugs the addicts call chemistry. Most of the addicts are men, but there are women, too, coming to toss their old nee- dies into a pile on the ground. Letter from Shevchenko A village known as Palermo is the low point in a tour of Ukraine s drug scene, Tribune correspondent Colin McMahon reports.