Information
The Living Dead
by David O'Shea
On air: 1st August 2010
They’re known as Argentina’s ‘living dead’… people who’ve become addicted to the drug, paco. They wander the slums of Buenos Aires desperately looking for money and their next fix.
Paco is made from the impure waste of cocaine production and sells for less than a dollar a packet. Some addicts need up to a hundred hits a day, with devastating consequences for them and their families.
Video journalist David O’Shea meets some of the Mothers Against Paco, who’ve joined forces to try and save their children from the drug and the violent culture that goes with it.
And he talks to the director of the film, Paco, about how the problem is moving from the slums to Argentina’s middle classes.
But there is also some hope amid the desperation.