More addicts due to the global crisis

No more a very appealing transgression or a negative hero type of thing. People who do drugs is seen as a person who has problems, that needs help more than doubles.

This is what Giovanni Serpelloni, Head Department for Anti drug Policies for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers has said while explaining to Adnkronos agency how, thanks to media prevention campaigns and effective initiatives against drug abuse, teenager’s perception of drug use has changed. A trend that doesn’t concern only Italy but at least all Europe. A positive sign of how trends change and of what a big impact they can have in a positive and either negative way.

The way the phenomenon has increased in the last 10 years has been deeply affected by socio cultural habits. Drugs have been constantly presented as market products by advertising, movies, music and TV in general where getting an aspirin rather than ecstasy or chewing down a whole box of chocolate rather than doing few lines of coke, at the end of the day is the same. An external remedy, rather temporary, to feel some relief, to feel a little better and being able to have better performances.
At this point we can just hope that with the new year, this precise awareness, that drinking and doing drugs as a remedy, is not a plus that makes that person more interesting, but the signal of an internal malaise that while doing so, doesn’t have many possibility to be solved.

We keep our finger crossed because reality is not easy. As the last PrevoLab report underlines, in 2012 drug abuse will represent a even more global business that it is now that has no intention of losing ground due to financial crisis and its impact on shrinking purchases.

Price are getting lower and lower. A single dose of cocaine, it will be only 13 Euro, less than a pizza while a joint won’t even reach 11 Euro. Also, in order to face the crisis, drug lords and traffickers, as the real entrepreneurs they are, have differentiated distribution channels and bringing on the market the so called “cyber drugs”, mp3 music files and at low cost heroin so to have a solid base of highly addicted consumers. Drug lords are investing on the youngest ones, teens among 14 and 16 so to assure a market for the upcoming 10 years and go over the crisis.