Aid organization for drug addicts shuts down after subsidy cut
Stichting Mainline, a national organization that provided support to heavily addicted drug users, announced it will cease operations after 36 years due to the loss of government funding. The closure leaves a significant gap in addiction care, particularly for marginalized users who have limited access to other services, NOS reports.
Wim van den Brink, emeritus professor of addiction care and chairman of Mainline’s board, told NOS, “This is not the time to cut back on help we really need.” He emphasized that the organization’s services were directed at “marginalized drug users. They are people who usually have not found their way to caregivers.”
Mainline, founded during the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s, initially provided education to drug users through a magazine distributed in collaboration with the municipality of Amsterdam, later expanding nationwide to areas with high concentrations of users. Over time, the organization developed walk-in sessions, projects, and activities where users could seek support, learn how to reduce use, or practice safer drug consumption, including access to clean needles.
The organization also played a key role in identifying new drug trends and contaminated substances, information that was reportedly vital to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
Van den Brink noted that Mainline’s direct contact with crack users allowed the ministry to track the number of crack users in the country last year. “I do not know who will do that now. There is no one for this at the moment,” he said.
The organization’s financial difficulties arose after the cabinet Rutte eliminated its VWS subsidy, which had accounted for 40 percent of Mainline’s annual budget. The municipality of Amsterdam temporarily increased local funding to help offset the loss, but it was not sufficient.
For the past year and a half, Mainline attempted to continue operations while reducing costs, but the effort failed. “And that means we are now going under,” Van den Brink said.
