Drug abuse prevention in Europe

 Since my project is related to youth work, I participated in a learning mobility project which took place in Malta at the end of November. This project was aimed at preventing drug addiction in the international society. After that I continued my work on this issue and began a research in the province of Italy, where I live now. And here I would like to share the results of this research that were quite unexpected for me.

 The main goal of this research is to determine how many young people in the province use drugs and to find effective ways to prevent this problem among youth.

The target group is schoolchildren from the first to the last (5th) classes of high schools aged 13 to 18 years old. We prepared a questionnaire and sent it to 2 local high schools. As I mentioned above, the results of the questionnaire surprised me, because I did not expect so many young people to use drugs. 56,5% of our respondents (83 of 147) answered that they use drugs or tried them at least once.

 Based on the responses to the question about the main causes why youth try drugs in general, we identified the most relevant factors that lead young people to use and/or abuse drugs (here they could choose several options).

 So first of all it’s curiosity and peer pressures (80,7%). In this respect, youth are particularly at risk because peer pressure can be very strong. Young people are more likely than adults to act in risky or daring ways to impress their friends and show their independence from parents and social rules.

 Then it’s different kinds of psychological and social problems such as depression and problems at school or at home (70%). Some young people who suffer from stress and depression start using drugs to try to feel less anxious. And also many young people start using drugs when they have different problems at school or at home and they don’t know or they can’t solve those problems on their own.

 And many of our respondents think that lack of parental guidance is one of the main reasons of the problem (31,4%).

 According to the results of the questionnaire, the environment of the majority of our respondents influenced the choice of using alcohol and drugs. Almost everyone of our respondents answered that their friends introduced them to drugs (90%).

Youth see lots of people consuming various substances. They see their peers drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and, sometimes, trying other substances.As a result, in their minds, they consider drug use as a part of the normal teenage experience. 

 Based on the results of the research, I can make a conclusion that to facilitate the induction of drug abuse prevention in our society, first of all, we need to create youth movement and organize hobby centers and different activities for young people. The majority of our respondents to the question about possible measures to prevent the problem of drug use answered that it is necessary to create hobby/ youth centers where young people can spend their free time with benefit and interest. 

 Here is the most interesting opinion of our respondents on this question:

“Give people a real reason not to do it at first. If we try drugs and then we continue using them it's because we have nothing better to do: when you live in a small village where on saturday night only bar is open there, you go there, then you try beer, spirits and then it becomes a habit. It's just normal because you have only that place to meet your friends”.

 And about 60% of our respondents think that youth awareness of negative consequences of drug use can help prevent the problem.

 Here is the most interesting opinion of our respondents on this question:

 “Children must be educated before they can find any kind of drugs in their lives. This means that they should have good knowledge at the age of 8-9 and be aware of everything that can happen to them if they use the most common drugs, including alcohol.”

 In conclusion, I would like to note, that currently drug abuse is a serious and growing problem among youth. And in order to prevent this problem our society should provide more opportunities for young people. These can be different kinds of activities, such as sports, art, etc., and they should give young people the right direction in their lives. It will help young people spend time with benefit and interest and avoid situations when they start using drugs because of curiosity, bad environment, and lack of interests and life goals. And most importantly we should spread awareness about the negative consequences of drug use among young people. In my opinion, these measures can help us solve the problem of drug addiction in our society.

Links:

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/oasi-foundation-visit.696931