Average age of drug abuse in Turkey drops to 14
YUNUS EMRE CEREN
Parliamentarian from Turkey’s main opposition party CHP, Didem Engin, has submitted a parliamentary question to mark the June 26 International Day Against Drug Abuse. In her question, MP Engin requested the reasons for the increase in drug abuse in Turkey to be researched and preventive solutions to be determined. Noting the severity of the issue, MP Engin called on authorities to urgently and seriously take caution.
Underlining that the average age for staring drug abuse has fallen down by two years within the past 8 years, Engin said in her question: “According to data from Report on Drug Abuse in Turkey 2006, the average age for starting to abuse drugs was 16. In year 2014, however, the average age for using drugs for the first time was found to be 14...”
MP Engin also drew attention to the increase in deaths caused by drug abuse and added: “While the number of people recorded to have died due to drug absue in 2000 was 12, in 2005 it was 26; and in 2006 it was 51... In year 2013, 232 people in our country lost their lives directly due to drug abuse while 416 died in the same year because of indirect effect of drugs...”
This leaves us with a 1833% increase in deaths related to drug abuse within the past 13 years.
Easy access to drugs is one of the most significant factors having an impact on the increase of drug use, Engin said and added: “Images of our children and youth fainting on streets especially in the big cities are truly heartbreaking. It’s been frequently reported that drugs are sold easily even around schools.
Drug abuse also has an influence on tendency of children and youngsters in committing crimes, MP said. According to data shared by Engin, ‘Of 118245 children who were brought to police department in 2015 with crime involvement or tendency, 42557 (36%) were also drug addicts’.
MP Engin also mentioned that rehab centers are also not sufficient, since there are only a total of 919 beds at state rehab centers of AMATEM and ÇEMATEM.
Stating that drug abuse has become a truly alarming problem especially in İstanbul, Engin said ‘49.6% of deaths directly caused by drug abuse took place in İstanbul’ in the past one year. As for deaths indirectly related to drugs, İstanbul was again the city with the heighest rate (32.2%).
In 2013, for example, 84.76% of meth that was seized by narcotics units across the country was found in İstanbul.
Saying synthetic cannabinoids were first found in 26 province in year 2011 but spread to over 70 cities by the year of 2013, Engin said this ‘must be addressed urgently and preventive measures must be designed and enforced as soon as possible’.
Fight against drug producers and suppliers, as well as, creation of new detterrant penalties were among the suggestions of MP Engin.
Front-page article of BirGün published on 24 June 2017, Saturday with the headline of 'What kind of a social policy is this?'
Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/chp-li-engin-den-meclis-e-uyusturucu-onergesi-kullanim-yasi-14-e-dustu-olum-orani-yuzde-1833-artti-166488.html
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