June 26 (BTA) - "Share facts about drugs, save lives" is the theme of this year's International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, said the National Centre for Public Health and Analysis (NCPHA) on Saturday.

The focus is on combating misinformation and encouraging the sharing of drug facts - from health risks, through opportunities to tackle the problem worldwide to prevention, treatment and care.

The services for treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation of drug users were discussed at an international workshop on Friday in Sofia, organized by the NCPHA within the framework of the Plan for Implementation of a National Drug Control Strategy (2020-2024).

The age at which children decide to experiment with substances has gone down to 12-13 years, and even 11-12, experts said. Dr. Georgi Dzhupanov from the State Psychiatric Hospital for the Treatment of Drug Addiction and Alcoholism commented that "Thus, at the age of 18-19 they are already seeking medical help for detox, but often they have already had neuropsychiatric complications."

According to Dr. Tsveta Raycheva, head of the NCPHA Addiction Department, a child is not just a young or immature adult. She explained that children and adolescents have unique needs for treatment and care that are tailored to the level of development of their brain and their cognitive functioning.

"Children who use drugs need specially designed interventions that are not of the resident type," confirmed Phaedon Kaloterakis, the Assistant Director of KETHEA Therapeutic Community in Greece, and president of the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities.

Adults and children should not be in mixed groups during treatment, with young people focusing on a variety of activities, including learning, sports, art, family work, he said.

Psychotherapist Kalin Petkov from the TRAMPLIN Rehabilitation Centre under the Life Without Drugs programme for children and adolescents at risk of using psychoactive substances said that "often children jump sharply from experimentation to drug abuse, multiple substance abuse is also common." He cited the case of a 16-year-old boy who had been addicted to heroin in just six months of his initial drug experiment and a girl of the same age who had escalated to taking 30 xanax a day.

According to experts, the care for children and young people with drug problems in Bulgaria is well regulated by law, but more efforts are needed to have a sufficient number of accessible programmes for rehabilitation and indicative prevention. RI/DT


/DT/