HEALTH Minister Dina Akkelidou said yesterday children as young as 12 were taking addictive substances. The revelation came from statistics drawn up with figures from all the drug prevention and rehabilitation centres on the island last year, and also showed that the vast majority of adult drug users were men.
Akkelidou was addressing reporters at a news conference following a Ministerial Committee meeting on drugs, which brought together the Ministers of Health, Defence, Justice, Education, Interior and Labour.
The Health Minister said the use of addictive substances from a young age could be caused by problems in the home environment or children’s greater social circle. In order to help limit the problem, she said there were support programmes, which both parents and children could turn to for help. Akkelidou referred to the psychiatric services’ drug prevention centre, Perseas, which offers such programmes, and said the number of people seeking help had quadrupled in 2003.
“The drug prevention and rehabilitation programmes, which will be implemented by the Ministries of Health, Education, Labour and Defence, local administrations and non-governmental organisations, and others, will be directed at prevention of use, reducing its spread, treatment and social reintegration of drug addicts,” Akkelidou said.
According to the statistics made public yesterday, the majority of drug users are men (87.7 per cent), aged 20-34, with 27 the average age for male users and 24 for women. Heroin is the “main substance of use (65 per cent) irrespective of sex”.
Nearly half of drug users are unemployed, said Akkelidou. While 35 per cent of users had asked for help in the past, 63 per cent were seeking help for the first time. Teenage users made up eight per cent of the population seeking help for drugs in 2003, she added.
“Most of them used cannabis, heroin and ecstasy.” And more women than men ask for help with an addiction to cocaine and ecstasy.
The average timeframe of using a specific substance until they sought help also varied, said Akkelidou. “Six years for heroin, eight for cannabis, two for ecstasy and seven for cocaine,” she said.
Meanwhile 82 per cent of users had started their drug habit by smoking cannabis, while just 8.2 per cent went straight to heroin and 4.5 per cent started right off with ecstasy. Again more women used ecstasy as a first-time drug than men.
During 2003, 58 per cent of drug users in treatment said they had used drugs intravenously and nearly half had shared needles. Of those who shared needles, 41 per cent had never been tested for hepatitis or HIV. Although only four per cent of users tested positive for hepatitis and none tested positive for HIV, European drug use statistics have highlighted that growing HIV numbers and other life threatening diseases are due to sharing needles.
“The use and abuse of dependent substances is a painful reality in today’s Cypriot society,” said Akkelidou. “Until recently, the absence of a National Strategy on Drugs created serious shortcomings in dealing with the problems of using and distributing drugs.”
This year alone nine people have died from drug overdoses and police are investigating a possible tenth drug-related death.
Akkelidou said the National Strategy on drugs planned to concentrate on two aspects in order to help combat the problem: physical detoxification and drug independence and reintegration into society.
“The fight against drugs is one of this government’s main priorities,” she said.
For example in order to improve efficiency an amended bill will reduce the number of people on the Anti-drugs Council to nine and specify that members must have scientific knowledge and experience, as well as seeking more involvement from the private sector, said Akkelidou.
She also highlighted the establishment of the Cyprus National Centre of Evidence and Information on Drugs (EKTEPN) in March. Akkelidou said EKEPTN would be responsible for collecting, processing and diffusing data and reliable facts in relation to the drugs problem. The Centre’s first report will be ready in October, she said.
