Giving signs of life” “

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCODA), a EU agency that has been collaborating with the member states of the EU for ten years now, in its annual Report for 2005, has presented a wide-ranging review of the spread of drugs in Europe. The Report provides evidence of the growth in the numbers of adolescents and young adults who make use of drugs and the growing consumption of analeptics (amphetamines, ecstasy) and cocaine. Among the more significant findings: cannabis and ecstasy are the most widespread drugs; magic mushrooms (hallucinogens) are used in twelve countries; and the practice of binge drinking (consumption of five consecutive alcoholic drinks) varies from country to country. Father MICHELE SIMONE discusses this alarming phenomenon in the last number of “La Civiltà Cattolica”, the fortnightly review of culture of the Italian Jesuits founded in 1850. He is convinced of the need for “a major network of services” at the European level “to help people to overcome their addiction to drugs”, and for “no less a commitment to reconstructing injured and fractured personalities with the recourse to spiritual values”. CANNABIS. According to the EMCODA Report, 3.7% of European youth aged between 15 and 34 consume cannabis every day; a growth of this substance has been registered in recent years, especially in urban areas and among male youths. It is a form of consumption, observes Father Simone, “influenced by social and personal factors or linked to groups”. The large-scale production of cannabis (approximately 40,000 tons per year) is “especially concentrated in Morocco, and penetrates Europe through the Iberian Peninsula and the Netherlands”. AMPHETAMINES AND ECSTASY. The first term, explains Father Simone, denotes “chemically correlated substances that stimulate the central nervous system”. It is from one of them, metamphetamine, that ecstasy derives: a stimulant habitually used by 2% to 5% of youths between the ages of 15 and 34, for the most part habitués of discos and clubs. The global annual production is estimated at approximately 520 tons; it mainly comes from Holland, Poland and Belgium. COCAINE AND “CRACK”. 4.6% of Italians, 4.9% of Spaniards and 6.8% of British declare they have tried cocaine at least once. The consumption of this drug (among 3 and 3.5 million persons in Europe) is greater among young males, in particular in Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Holland. The users of crack cocaine (a cocaine derivative, consumed by smoking) have increased in recent years and, notes the Jesuit, “comprise socially disadvantaged subjects and members of ethnic minorities”. Production in 2003 amounted to 655 tons; the main producing nation is Colombia. According to the EMCODA Report, the main gateways to Europe are “Spain, Holland and Portugal”. HEROIN. Between 1999 and 2002, says the Report, over 100,000 people died of drug overdose in European countries (in particular heroin, often associated with alcohol, benzodiazepine or cocaine). “That’s a minimum estimate – underlines Father Simone – because many countries tend not to report all cases” and “the causes of the death of consumers of opiates (assumed by intravenous injection) also include Aids, hepatitis C, accidents and suicides”. Afghanistan is the world’s major producer of opiates (4,850 tons in 2004); heroin is derived from them, especially in Afghanistan itself and in Turkey; it is then introduced into the continent through three “routes” (northern, central and southern) which run from East to West throughout the length of Europe. VOID OF OUR CIVILIZATION. “The desire to experience a new sensation, or to do something that the others do so as not to be excluded from the group”; transgression understood as “sign of freedom”; the sense of “euphoria and power that is experienced by taking drugs”; the attempt to “escape from problems and the rejection of programmes of life that demand effort and dedication”: these, according to Father Simone, are the main reasons that encourage adolescents and young adults to take drugs. They are also, says the Jesuit, “a sign of the void at the heart of our civilization and its inability to offer youth the great human – and Christian – values for which it is worth spending one’s life”. What’s needed to respond to the problem is “a major network of services in Europe to help people to get over their addiction with suitable therapeutic treatments” and, at the same time, “no less a commitment to reconstructing injured and fractured personalities with the recourse to spiritual values”.