Together against drugs

The number of high school students in Bucharest who take drugs has doubled in the past five years . If we also take into account potential drug consumers, we can say that the number of drug addicts in high schools has increased four times , as shown in a study conducted by the ‘Save the children’ organisation and the Public Health Department of the Bucharest City hall. According to that study, the temptation of consuming drugs is in direct proportion with age , so high school pupils in the last years of studies are much more vulnerable However, the authorities estimate that more and more underage pupils have started taking drugs, and primary schools have become points of maximum interest for drug dealers - said Gabriela Alexandrescu the president of the Save The children organisation . Recently under a government ordinance , five ministries have set up a commission in charge of implementing the national anti -drug programme . More than 300 policemen , psychologists and physicians will go to schools and high schools to make the children aware of the dangers posed by the so-called white death. Dan Licsandru the coordinator of the inter - ministerial commission, will give us details about the program: “ Our target this year is teenagers because , unfortunately , the statistics show a considerable increase in the number of drug consumers in this age group . On the other hand , we are planning to create a national network of local centers, which can adapt their strategy to local needs. We are in Iasi now and the seventh training meeting of local representatives is in full swing : we have here representatives from the counties of Iasi, Suceava , Botosani and Neamt ( north - eastern Romania ) . Also, on March 15th we launched probably the most important media campaign dealing with social issues. Part of that campaign over 1,500 commercials will be broadcast by the major TV stations over a period of three months and we have already got the approval of local television stations that wish to back our initiative . An impressive amount of materials are already printed and will be distributed to centres all over the country, so that we can draw the attention to the risks posed by drugs “
Concurrently with the national anti - drug programme , the civil society organizes its own prevention centres . The Spiru Haret National College of Bucharest has recently hosted the opening of the Centre for drug consuption prevention. Toma Mares, the president of the International Federation of educational communities said that drug consumption in high schools is a reality we cannot ignore: ‘It is no longer a secret that this phenomenon does exist . We place special emphasis on raising families’ awareness, on making them get involved through discussions, exchange of information, because if a parent does not know what drug consumption entails and does not work with us, the result is a total failure. Brochures and other materials have been issued for some time now. Only getting as many people as possible involved in this campaign we will be able to do something. School alone can not prevent drug consumption .
We talked to four students of the “Spiru Haret” College and asked them why, in their opinion, do teen-agers take drugs. Claudia thinks family problems is the main reason: “Some take drugs just to show off but most of them do that because something goes wrong in their families: many kids have too much money and probably parents that don’t pay enough attention to them. Many do it out of curiosity, they want to try something new… They think taking drugs is fun, it makes you feel great…” The authors of the afore-mentioned study say the main dealers and initiators in drug taking are in most cases friends or acquaintances. The young drug addicts get their drugs from near the high-school, from bars, clubs or from terrace-bars. Marijuana, heroine, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, LSD, methadone, solvents, steroids and even hallucinogenic mushrooms – everything is available for sometimes very good money. We asked Alex which are the most popular drugs among teen-agers: “Grass is quite frequent, then there is the ‘powder’, heroine, but I haven’t seen it in our high-school… Also, pills, like Ecstasy… I hear a pot is between 150 and 200 thousand lei (less than 10 Euros). After a while, the pot has no effect and so they resort to to powders, injectable drugs…
The “media shock” that Dan Lixandru talked about is real. Romanian newspapers print almost every day alarming stories that seem like cut from movies: students excusing themselves from classes in order to get their daily dose in the school toilets, used syringes on restroom’s floors, “friendly” dealers ready to lend money or even drugs to their clients. The papers carry interviews with teen-agers that weaned themselves from drugs for the second time. There are talks on drugs and on how we should react when one of our close acquaintances shows signs of addiction. Information campaigns already seem to have an effect on those who haven’t been trapped yet. We asked some teenagers how they would react if they were offered drugs for free, Here are some of the answers we got: “No, thank you, I’m not interested, I don’t think this is good for me”; ”I’d beat his guts off, of course the first dose is for free, everybody knows that. If I don’t want it, he can’t make me do it.” “We know the risks and we wouldn’t do it”.
Sociologist Mariana Nica pulls another alarm signal: “We must be careful how we treat drug consumers, we most not blame them or point fingers, making them feel they’re special cases. We must get closer to them and try to understand their personal drama, we must listen to the SOS the young send to all those around them. We want to write everywhere in capital letters: take care, parents, even if you don’t have these problems now, take care, teachers, even if you don’t have such cases in your classes now; nobody, no child is immune to drugs”.
This topic is painful and so present-day, regardless of the language it is spoken in. We therefore feel compelled to repeat: no one is immune to drugs. Help those who took the way to suicide to come back on the road of life. It depends on us too.