Hiding in the hulk of a house their opposing guns have turned to rubble, two Muslims and a Serb prepared for the silent shooting that peace has made possible.

"For elections, I'm voting for my Serb dealer," Edin said, clapping his ex-enemy, Igor, on the back. Igor grinned and loaded the "gun" - slang for heroin needle - he kept behind his ear.They shot up together and then went their separate ways. Until the following day.

This is Bosnia. Edin and his friend, Senad, are fond of Igor. But they hate Serbs in general as much as the insistent pain that pushes them to drugs, which prevent them from building any future.

"Look," Edin said, opening his shirt to reveal ugly sniper souvenirs on his chest and back. Another scarred his leg. He was shot three times just down the block, on the Dobrinja airport line.

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"Can you imagine, after all that pain, now I am facing this pain," he said, glancing at a small pile in a gum wrapper, one gram. It cost him $65, two weeks of an average Bosnian monthly wage.

"My wife would kill me if she knew I did drugs," Edin said. "Senad's wife doesn't know, either. They would be very disappointed."

The 40-month siege of Sarajevo forced many addicts to stop, cold turkey. The retail price topped $250 a gram. Now that has halved, but money still is scarce.

Senad reckons about 500 people regularly shoot heroin in Sarajevo, and there are more in shattered outlying areas.

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