It was the beginning of the 80s, drugs were omnipresent in our home, I had just been elected municipal councilor in June 1983, I was still working as a pediatrician, politics was a vocation (and not a profession) and I was determined to put it on the agenda. … publishes the serious wave of drug addiction that was destroying our young people: stop the horse.
And we did it. In March 1985, in what was formerly Casa de Socorro, in the center of Vigo, on Uruguay Street, we opened the first public unit serving thousands of young drug addicts: CEDRO. But since we were the first in the whole field, the young people came to us destroyed by heroin and other addictions. In the lead are Xosé Teixeiro, experienced psychiatrist, and Jorge Cabrera, psychologist and psychotherapist. With them, nurses, assistants, administrators… and this counselor, who was me, suffering the rejections of the right-wing society which did not want drug addicts near their homes, even if they had drug addicts at home, in their family.
Now is not the time to give positive publicity to these young people who are asking for help. After the birth of CEDRO, its first ally, Érguete, was born, which was legalized in 1985, and they met several times at CEDRO. Vigo City Hall helped Erguete even more when some authorities were still encountering smugglers who were switching from tobacco to drugs in a flash. The City Hall, while I was in the mayor’s office, gave him the premises of Alcalde Martínez Garrido free of charge, where they remain. CEDRO, in the meantime, had become very large and during my term as mayor we inaugurated its current facilities in Pintor Colmeiro.
In new locations, issues with some residents in both areas. It was already the 90s, but they didn’t want drug addicts. And alone, enduring the downpour, to take care of patients suffering from various addictions with dignity. Now that Sergas finally integrates these 13 units, only 13, throughout Galicia, I will tell you what the media and websites are not telling you. That this city and its leaders at the time did what was right and necessary. We do not want medals or tributes, but as in the early detection program for breast cancer, Vigo and we, in its City Hall, are beginning the path of offering universal, free and quality public health services.
We did the same when we looked for an alternative to the Zondal landfill, which would be a large park without the collapse of the Bens landfill in La Coruña (1996), which caused one death (corpse not found) and an ecological disaster due to marine pollution that reached the French coast. In short, we can be proud of what we have done for the good of all. Thank you for the trust you placed in us and which subsequently faded. As the poet says, “the path is made only by walking,” and some of us have walked well even if others did not want to. It is the history of human societies.
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