Tomeu Canyelles: "Drugs have not only been materially accessible in the Balearic Islands, they have also been culturally accessible."

Palm"The study of the multiple expressions of marginality in the Balearic Islands is a little-explored field from a historical perspective," says historian Tomeu Canyelles (Pòrtol, 1984) at the beginning of his latest book, where he confirms his intention to reverse this trend. Riding the Abyss: Drug Culture in the Balearic Islands (Leonard Muntaner) traces the recent—and not so recent—history of the Archipelago through the impact of substances like cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin on the economic, social, and cultural spheres.

Where did your desire to investigate this issue come from? It stems from one of your previous books, Yesterday we buried a child in the city, dedicated to José Esteves de la Concepción –better known as Chocolate, considered the first overdose death in Mallorca?

— Yes, of course. Starting that story was a revelation for me, because it involved talking about a Mallorca that no one had ever told me about. I realized that many of these episodes had never been examined in detail, or were even considered minor, and I thought it was worth digging deeper. Two years ago, I received a research grant from the IEB, which I dedicated to working on the heroin crisis in the Balearic Islands, and this book, which is now being published, complements that work in some ways, offering a broader framework, a context.

A context linked to a topic that is generally taboo, although the book makes it clear that it has economic, social and cultural repercussions.

— I wanted to understand the mechanisms surrounding drugs, which are not just about consumption, not by a long shot. Those of us born in the 80s have had all the information from the beginning, but I was interested in exploring the underlying logic.

For example?

— From how drugs arrive here, the large networks that bring certain substances to the Islands, to their impact on different social classes: from the elites who consume them in search of a certain idea of cosmopolitanism, to the dynamics that emerge when they spread among the disadvantaged. In the Balearic Islands, like good Mediterraneans, we are very good at not talking about certain things and creating long silences, but for me, all of this has repercussions on our history as a people that we cannot ignore.

In his book it is very clear that the Balearic Islands have a particular history in relation to drug culture.

— The real impact of drugs didn't stem from their material accessibility; in the Balearic Islands, they were also culturally prevalent. We're talking about a booming economy, a vibrant nightclub scene, and significant financial resources. We mustn't forget that certain drugs first spread through the upper classes, in the Balearic Islands, and then trickle down, and that's where the conflict arises. Cocaine and heroin weren't a problem as long as they only affected the elite, who could afford treatment or obtain drugs on the mainland. The problem emerged when they reached the lower classes, generating a sense of insecurity and lack of control that has now exploded with the AIDS epidemic.

Even so, there are still many pages to be written about the heroin crisis: it is a topic that is still very uncomfortable.

— And it generates a lot of guilt. Many people haven't wanted to talk to me, and I understand that, but it's even difficult to put numbers on it: the figures we have tell us there were 3,000 heroin addicts in 1985 and that, presumably, that number had reached 5,000 by 1987. But how many died because of it? How many have suffered lifelong consequences? Needles have been heavily demonized ever since, but this hasn't stopped cocaine from becoming part of the reality for those born in the 80s and 90s. It's true that it hasn't caused as many deaths as heroin, but it has caused other kinds of harm.

Just a few days ago, literary critic Nadal Suau published in The Country an article in which he discussed the normalization of cocaine in recent literature, and David López Canales has written an essay entitled A little line?

— These are very interesting steps toward understanding what's happening to us as a society. The psychiatrist Amador Calafat told me that in southern European societies we have a lesser capacity to condemn the use of certain substances: the child given a cigarette at their First Communion, the boys who at 12 or 13 years old begin their fascination with pets and romantic partners through the association of certain substances, which, because they are prohibited, have a heightened erotic appeal. And that narrative still prevails.

And, as with everything in the recent history of the Archipelago, tourism is also connected to all of this.

— Was there cocaine in the Balearic Islands before the arrival of tourism? Yes, and it's discussed in the book. But it's true that the arrival of tourism helped to highlight our contradictions as a people in the face of external customs. And until now, this has been explored from many perspectives, such as the moral narrative, new ways of relating to one another, and aesthetics, but the issue of substances remained unaddressed.

However, each island has had its own history with drugs, as is clearly shown in Riding the Abyss.

— Undoubtedly, each island had its own rhythms. Mallorca largely capitalized on this history during the first part of the 20th century, but from the 1960s onwards, with the arrival of the hippies in Ibiza, everything changed. It became a true distribution hub, and this had many repercussions. We're talking about a time when there was an expanding economy, but also infrastructure, and a lack of knowledge: the officers here received training from the DEA [the United States Drug Enforcement Administration] because they knew nothing about these substances, nor how to deal with them.

Even so, the book also recounts how the official arrival of ecstasy in the Balearic Islands is linked to an Ibiza nightclub, Amnesia.

— And again, we must talk about cultural reinforcement, also through an audiovisual culture that helped create and promote certain stereotypes. In any case, we now have much more information, which doesn't mean everyone does. I know two people, born like me in the 80s, who are completely destroyed by drugs, and we've all had access to the same information.