Welcome to the
Narcotic City Archive

We invite you to explore and contribute to this free online archive on cultures, histories, activities, and spaces related to drugs. The Narcotic City Archive collects and preserves the heritage of substance use and many associated social, cultural, economic, and political issues. We aim to gather a wide range of historical and contemporary materials from different groups and inviduals – and we hope that you will join us in this process! Learn more about the archive.

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Contested Space: Syringes in a Community Garden

by Sage Anderson

Set in the seasons leading up to 2020, this story takes place in a public community garden in Bonn, Germany, in a small lot surrounded by low-rise apartment buildings, in a quiet part of town not far from the Rhine. There was once a playground on this site, but it fell into disrepair and disuse. Increasingly overgrown with plant life – and thus shielded from street view – the abandoned playground was subsequently used primarily by people consuming drugs and alcohol.

2015 – 2021

Germany

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Travel through an Ideal City of Marginalised Drugs Users

by Mélina Germes, Luise Klaus

Look at this picture. It’s a huge drawing of how an ideal city could look – but not just any ideal city: the city of drug users, imagined from a variety of marginalized positions.

2019

Utopia

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Public Undergrounds: The rise of alternative drug cultures and the invention of the “Scene”

In the early 1970s, the emerging narcotic cultures of West-Berlin not only drew the attention of the public and the media, but came into the focus of academics and public health institutions, First studies and surveys were conducted with one paper standing out in particular. It was entitled “Drug Consumers Underground” [Drogenkonsumenten im Underground] and authored by a collective of young social workers, drug users and educators, some of them with aliases.

1970 – 1975

West-Berlin

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Archive story of the month

In 2018, with the help of a professional writer, Truus Oldenburg published her life story: Fucking Hell: Het verhaal van Truus Oldenburg. Truus, then a 58-year-old woman living in Amsterdam, felt the need to share her story to counter the taboo on problematic drug use.

'Fucking Hell'. The story of Truus Oldenburg

by Jaar en Dag Media

In 2018, Truus Oldenburg and professional writer Renate Guitink published the life story of Truus, who was then a woman of 58 years old and living in Amsterdam.

1970 – 2020

Amsterdam

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Items: dive into
the Narcotic City Archive

Items include any kind of historical or contemporary material that can be shown online. Take a look and follow your own path of discovery!

Dive into Items

Collections:
explore different themes

Collections allow you to explore different themes and focuses of the Archive, and to discover rich sets of materials contributed by different individuals and groups.

Explore Collections

Stories: dig deeper
into the background

With Stories you can explore in-depth perspectives and more information about various items.

Dig into Stories

Learn how to contribute

We hope that the Archive will be a living, growing, inclusive space, and a platform for producing knowledge and sharing experiences. We invite you to contribute your own materials and perspectives!

Contribute Items or Collections

Amsterdam Nation-Map of Junkie Mokum by Peter Pontiac

Create & share
your Collections

With the Quick Selection feature, you can mark your favorite Items to save them for yourself, to share with others, or to contribute the selection to the Narcotic City Archive. Just mark any Items with the heart icon and click on Quick Collections in the top right corner to find out more.

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