TIRANA - When he goes back in time, 31-year-old Marko Ruvina admits that he is ashamed of himself. On the other hand, as if to console himself, he says that he was quite young and naive, but he learned the right lessons.
Në këtë rubrikë të Patronazhistit do trajtojmë rastin e një djali shqiptar, të cilit desh iu shkatërrua jeta nga droga, konkretisht kokaina. Por pjekuria që ta japin pësimet e rinisë së parë, si dhe ndihma e shokëve të ngushtë, ka bërë që ai ta kapërcejë këtë fazë delikate të jetës. Sot Marko Ruvina ka ecur përpara dhe e ka rregulluar jetën e vet. Përveç shtëpisë në Tiranë, djaloshi ka edhe një apartament të lezetshëm në bregdet, ndërsa megjithë angazhimet, ai ja del të udhëtojë jo pak herë jashtë shtetit.
***
Në fillim, rreth të njëzetave, isha në kontakt të përditshëm me hashashin, e më pas me kokainën, thotë Marko Ruvina. Ai tregon sesi përgatiste dozat e vogla 2 gramëshe dhe dridhte vetë cigaret e hashashit për t’ua shitur shtresave në nevojë.
"There wasn't a day when I didn't carry some drugs with me. I used to go around Tirana with a hat or a bicycle to meet clients. I'm not saying that I didn't earn, but I used to leave the money as I received it" , the young man confesses.
A good part of the income escaped to avoid trouble with the police, while the only thing he remembers from that time is that he bought his parents a new TV and two used smart phones.
"I always had a dose hidden in the sole of my shoe, another inside the cover of my mobile phone, and a couple of hashish cigarettes disguised in a pack of cigarettes. I was all the time with fear in my heart, water in my sweat in summer and shivering with cold in winter. Dog life," Marko Ruvina recalls today. Until one day he decided that this lifestyle was not for him.
***
"I realized that I had to reduce the contact with drugs as much as possible," the young man says to Patronajist. And so the decision was made. With the money he was able to save, Marko Ruvina bought two good university degrees, one in international relations and one in public management, and started any job in the state, as a simple specialist.
"I didn't want to see the paint on millimeter bags of cocaine and hashish cigarettes anymore," says Marko, " I was slandered. Even the two close friends I have, Genci and Agimi, filled my mind that I deserved more."
And in fact, his friends helped him. The three pooled their money and bought 3 kilos of cocaine, which they sold to retail dealers and no longer messed with scales, pharmacy scales and small bags. Pound by pound, the work added up.
"I now touch cocaine with my hands only once every two or three months," says Marko Ruvina, " and then with gloves. The period of my unrestrained contacts with drugs is over."
He says that he occasionally takes leave from work for a tourist trip to Europe or Latin America, and occasionally calls a couple of his friends at the port of Durrës. The rest of the agenda is work-home, home-work.
Even family members and acquaintances who remember him as a mobile teenager, admit that they were surprised, but also surprised by this metamorphosis.
"Marko has settled down, and I am happy," says his uncle, Hasho Shashaj, "he has understood his priorities in life. Even there in the state office, they made him director of something. I live in the village and with law 7501 I have benefited from three dynams of hashish. I told him a month ago, find me some mystery to sell 50 kilos. I know what he told me: Don't mess with these things, go get the farmer's nephew and sell it yourself. I left now that we have a seminar on the rule of law with the OSCE. That's what he told me."
***
Before we part ways, Marko Ruvina looks over his 2008 Passat. “I don't know, ” he says thoughtfully, “I was offered an X6 at a good price. I was tempted, but I say keep the car I have. Now that I have less contact with drugs, the expensive car stands out. Then, we are on budget salaries," he added and laughed.
Note: Patronageist is an anti-drug satirical column