Are drugs ever worth it?
A young Pole died last Monday in Limassol’s General Hospital. He was found unconscious at Lady’s Mile Beach the previous day by police, who acted on a tip off that drugs were being used at a dance party in the area. At the time of writing this column, it isn’t clear to what extent the 21-year-old man’s death was drug related, but he is believed to have been taking drugs and drinking alcohol on the night in question and when found his trouser pockets were full of ecstasy pills.
Now, I don’t know if the man was in Cyprus as a tourist, seasonal worker or permanent resident but one fact about his death is absolutely clear. If the state pathologist confirms later this week that Mariusz Kozorowski died because of taking those ecstasy pills, his will be the seventh drug related death in Cyprus since the beginning of this year, the 25th since January 1, 2006 and the 39th since January 1, 2005.
Not bad. Thirty nine people in 30 months translates into something like an average of 1.3 people dead every month due to drugs, and such a result, apparently, places our island in second place in Europe in drug-related deaths per capita.
Let’s have a closer look at the other drug-related statistics in Cyprus because they are very interesting:
1) At the moment, there are about 1,500 problematic drug users in Cyprus
2) The average age of people who use drugs in Cyprus is between 20 and 24
3) The most popular drug on the island is cannabis, with almost seven per cent of Cypriots admitting to having used it at least once
4) More than three per cent of Cypriot students have tried drugs
5) Just over 87 per cent of users are men
6) Most of them begin using drugs while serving in the army or during their studies. In 2005, 24 soldiers were involved in 21 drug-related cases
7) School children are also increasingly taking drugs, some as young as 11. In 2005, 27 high school pupils were arrested for drug offences, 21 of them being Cypriot
8) In spite of a wide-spread belief that in Cyprus drug addicts are usually young people from single parent or problematic families, it is not true. However, well-to-do Cypriots take cocaine rather than heroin (apparently more cool) and there is a general trend in moving from heroin to cocaine as well as a recent increase in multi drug use. Still heroin remains the most popular substance at 62.5 per cent
9) Unemployment among drug abusers is about 60 per cent. Forty two per cent of them had left school before completing secondary education
10) Twenty four per cent of those who died because of drug abuse were aged between 20 and 24, and 34 per cent between 25 and 29
11) Sixty nine per cent of deaths were the result of opiate based drugs, mainly heroin, 14 per cent were cocaine and 17 per cent were due to other substances, such as ecstasy
11) Ten per cent of all road deaths are drug-related with the most common forms of drug-related deaths being overdose, suicide and health problems
12) Only 20 per cent of hard drug abusers seek help in Cyprus every year. In 2004, 450 users sought therapy. In 2005 – 423. Out of those who asked for help, the majority are Greek Cypriot males, aged around 28, usually unemployed and addicted to heroin
I have never taken drugs and as a matter of fact even when as a student I wanted to smoke a joint I failed because as a non smoker I had no idea how to inhale (I guess it’s the same story for Bill Clinton). Still a few years ago, when already on the island, I was suddenly faced with a dilemma to take or not to take. I was invited out to dinner to celebrate my birthday by a young Cypriot guy, a well-off, successful professional, who obviously decided that I didn’t seem to have enough fun in my life. We were talking about various work and life-related subjects and enjoying ourselves until dessert. Then suddenly my friend, let’s call him Yiannis, presented me with a tiny box. I opened it and here it was: my birthday present, an ecstasy pill that I was to pop. “I know you have never taken it,” said Yiannis. “I have thought you should try at least once.”
I looked at him in shock and declined, thus ruining his night out. But that is not the point. The point is this guy wasn’t a drug dealer and I wasn’t looking for drugs and yet here we were, debating over a thizzle instead of having real fun. And because I am so paranoid as far as drugs are concerned, even today I wonder what would have happened had I taken it.
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