I WILL COME TO YOUR RESCUE

... I am wandering along the deserted streets of my deserted city, thinking about a jolly girl of 17, as pretty as many of my friends ... I remember our having fun together, our singing aloud just because we felt happy, our sharing the innermost thoughts and feelings as we sat on the sofa, wrapped in a warm rug...

Now I’m going to see her. Because she is not able to come over to see me. She even has to breathe with the help of a respirator which keeps on beeping and drawing a curve on the display ... The doctor said, “Drug overdose...»

“To think it all began with the innocent “Try it” at our friends’ party”, I thought biting my lips in frustration.

And how many more drug addicts live next door to you, my dear reader or me? Do you happen to know? What makes them take drugs? Do you know that teenagers are most prone to become drug addicts?

No wonder because a teenager going through the hard period of maturation is often exposed to the outside influence.

Emotional rebuilding, mental pressures, changing values...

This rebuilding often results in conflicts and the first attempts at self-realization ending in failure. So the little frail, shaky bridge between the fairy path of childhood and a hazy, dim future appears to be hanging over a gaping abyss.

Now the teenager, exhausted by never-ending conflicts and scrapes, is out for new sensations, seeking an escape from the harsh reality of life. With the present socio-economic situation in this country, drugs are easy to come by, and they often become an indispensable part of “communication” when young people get together.

The trouble is that people around tend to be reluctant to recognize the problem, realize its scope, or give a helping hand to just beginning or desperate drug addicts. In fact, only dope addicts and their relatives are concerned about the problems of dope addiction, while we, their neighbors, friends and acquaintances will often turn our back on a 10- or 12-year-old ruining his life. The major problem is that drug abuse is becoming so widespread that it may entail degradation of society.

Given below are the findings of the sociological survey conducted by the students of the Institute of Management in our city. This is a training survey so the representative sample is not very large. Nevertheless, we would like to show you the findings, as they are typical of our city and allow to record the problem.

There were 70 people interviewed including 47 boys (67 percent) and 23 girls (33 percent). The respondents were divided into three age groups: 14 to 16 years old (9 percent of the respondents), 17 to 18 years old (57 percent), 19 years old and over (34 percent).

The survey findings showed that the majority of the respondents had got to know about the drugs situation in the city from various sources such as TV programs, local newspapers, and certainly, from their friends. 76 percent of the interviewed teenagers had their “own experience” of using drugs.

The answers to the question “How often does it come to drugs when you meet your friends?” are really alarming as 31 percent of boys and girls answered “often”; 20 percent answered “sometimes when there is enough money on hand”; the same percentage said “very seldom”, and only a quarter of the respondents (25 percent) answered “never”.

At their leisure time, 30 percent of the interviewed boys and girls give their preference to sports and reading books, 22 percent - to video films, 20 percent - to alcohol, the same number – to drugs, and 28 percent - to sex.

The survey findings revealed the mean age (14.8) of those who tried drugs for the first time. Many teenagers, however, start using drugs at the age of 10 and even 8(!).

About half of the respondents are unaware of the imminent danger and believe that dope addiction is curable; 24 percent think it is incurable; one fifth of the respondents found the question difficult to answer. Incidentally, narcologists say drug addiction is practically incurable. After a course of treatment at special clinics drug addicts can still resume taking drugs.

Most of the young people (64 percent), when asked “What makes a teenager try his or her first drug?”, answered “felt bored, wanted something new”; 21 percent believe this is an easy way to escape troubles; 14 percent answered that their “friends coaxed them into it”.

Who is there to help a teenager if his “acquaintance” with drugs is somewhat drawn-out?

More than one third of the young people involved (34 percent) think that a teenager on drugs can appeal for help to a rehabilitation center for drug addicts; 17 percent trust their friends; the same number would use a telephone hotline; 21 percent would visit a psychologist and only 10 percent would ask their parents for help.

The next question was “What do you think our society, governmental agencies and local authorities should do to handle the problem of dope addiction among teenagers?” 21 percent of the respondents suggest focusing on a better organized leisure time for youth; 12 percent would welcome sterner laws; 5 percent think more funds should be allocated for treatment of addicts; and 3 percent proposed that that drug addicts be isolated from society.

All the respondents agree that drug addiction is a pressing youth problem and, therefore, it is a problem of the future. Now it all depends on us, on how much we care for ourselves and the world around.

Zhenya Kenarskaya (based on the findings of the sociological survey conducted by students M.Ganeev and A.Averyanov, Institute of Management)

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