In recent decades, our country has been involved in rapid economic, social, and demographic developments. This has brought significant progress in many areas, but at the same time, there has been a lack of attention to problems that are no longer new to our country but remain unaddressed. Issues such as adolescent drug use, lack of education, social taboos, etc., have become a heavy burden for families, society, and our state.
In our work of raising awareness and rehabilitation, we encounter many individuals where parents do not know how to communicate with their children about these phenomena. One of these young people expresses: “I never heard my dad say NO to something.”
“He never told me no when I started drinking a little alcohol, when I started smoking, even when I started using hashish (marijuana) in the house with my friends.”
The compelling effects of drugs primarily affect adolescents and young people, who due to their physical, physiological, psychological, social, and emotional characteristics are much more vulnerable than adult age groups to the damages caused by drugs, both in terms of psycho-physical health and in social and academic aspects. Unfortunately, the spread of drug use among adolescents and young people is more than twice as high as that in the general population (taken from the latest global statistics from the WHO, where similar reports are likely to exist in our country as well). These reasons and this highly concerning situation demand a more serious commitment from the entire society and especially from state institutions, relevant structures, and civil society, particularly in protecting these age groups from the drug phenomenon.
In families, schools, communities, etc., there needs to be more attention and greater commitment to creating appropriate conditions for proper information dissemination among young people about drugs, educating them with an anti-drug stance, for a healthy life. Ministry of Health of Albania/WHO
Rehabilitation Center for Drug, Alcohol, and Various Dependencies, STREHA Teen Challenge Albania, Tirana, September 2021