In ‘I am a drug user, but a decent one!’, Greta Huis examines the life stories of people from the Amsterdam drug scene and the role that religion plays in it. The focus is on the experiences of people who have been addicted to heroin or cocaine for a long time. The study uses three types of data: narrative-biographical interviews, personal diaries, and observations of eighteen church services of the Amsterdam Drugspastoraat.

The scientific research shows that religion — broadly defined, including spirituality — plays a positive and morally supportive role in the lives of many. Despite the stigma surrounding drug use, the stories reveal that these people adhere to norms and values, reflect on their actions, and often have a deep desire for human dignity, meaning, and recognition.

Greta Huis studied Information and Communication at Windesheim.  She then studied theology at the University of Amsterdam and Union Theological Seminary in New York. She is a teacher of Religion at the Willem Lodewijk Gymnasium in Groningen. She is also a pastor of the Association of Liberal Protestants in the province of Groningen, and she prefers to lead services in the local dialect, known as Grunneger Dainsten.

In 1996, she started working as a pastor in the Amsterdam drug scene—where she got the idea for this research—and was then the first female  “drug pastor” in the Netherlands.