THE DEFENCE Ministry said yesterday it had launched its own drugs hotline to help conscripts as well as their friends and family.
The number, 1404, will be connected as of next week, and is for emergency purposes on a 24-hour basis, National Guard medical chief Dr Christakis Kyprianou said.
The announcement was made at a news conference to mark the armed forces’ ‘Week Against Drugs’.
This is the third consecutive year the National Guard has carried out an anti-drugs week.
Defence Ministry permanent secretary Petros Kareklas said although the island’s armed forces did not have an elevated drugs problem, prevention measures were key in ensuring that these levels remained containable.
“The National Guard compares favourably to other armies regarding the extent of the drugs problem. Despite this we remain vigilant, concerned and steadily work in the area of prevention as well as co-operating closely with other competent authorities on this issue,” Kareklas said.
The permanent secretary said the National Guard’s health services had drawn up a five-year action plan and developed several prevention programmes. He also said it co-operated with other scientific and university centres abroad as well as the Greek Armed Forces.
“The National Guard for the first time is co-organising a two day scientific seminar on ‘substance dependency and the armed forces’ with the Greek Armed Forces,” Kareklas said.
The seminar started at 5.30pm yesterday at the Hilton Park Hotel and was expected to include distinguished scientists from both countries, including naval captain and psychiatrist Vasilio Menouti.
Kareklas said the seminars were designed to further educate the military’s medical and nursing staff regarding drugs and ways to prevent the problem.
“The seminars are open to scientists from the private and public sector who deal with this problem,” he said.
Speaking on the same issue at an event at Nicosia’s Acropolis Lyceum, Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous said almost seven per cent of the Cyprus population had smoked cannabis at least once in their life, while in Europe this average increased to 16.7 per cent.
Sophocleous based his statements on information from the Cyprus Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EKTEPN).
He said: “Regarding substance abuse among students, a national survey conducted in 2006 at 43 schools indicated that 3.3 per cent of students had tried illegal substances.”
Sophocleous said more boys (5.7 per cent) had used drugs compared to girls (1.5 per cent).
Fashion, curiosity and personal problems were the top three reasons students gave regarding what had prompted them to use drugs. Some of the students were unable to define their reasons for trying illicit substances, he said.
The minister said students in Cyprus were among the lowest drug users in Europe, while the average age for trying cannabis was 20.1 and 23.6 for heroin.
Meanwhile although the National Guard said yesterday it did not have a drug problem and that any users that were in the army had entered the armed forces already as users, Sophocleous said conscripts were among the highest cannabis users with 12.5 per cent admitting to trying the substance at least once in their lifetime, 7.8 per cent admitting to having recently used and 4.7 per cent saying they’d used in the past month.
Of the latter group, 12.7 per cent said they used cannabis daily, the minister said.
