Half a million tragedies

Ukraine’s first nationwide comprehensive study completed this year shows that there are about 500,050 drug abusers in our country. Until now the official figure was 160,000 registered drug addicts. Quite predictably, the real figure turned out to be much higher. Doctors claim that we should now be talking about more than one variety of drug abuse because the addictions of homeless people and bohemians’ fascination with cocaine have entirely different causes and consequences.

Nevertheless, all addictions share some common trends: the numbers of drug-dependent people are growing slowly but surely. Most of them are young people, with children under 15 accounting for 15 percent of the total. Their drug abuse can also have different causes.

The common perception is that drug abuse results from low living standards and poverty. “Drugs don’t like empty pockets,” says Dr. Anatolii Viievsky, chief detoxification specialist at the Ministry of Public Health and the city of Kyiv, and chairman of the All-Ukrainian Detoxification Association.

“Drugs seek out money, and money can be found in the pockets of children who have homes, not the homeless.” You can come across drug dealers in almost every school (usually older pupils), not to mention universities. Drug dealers don’t always offer marijuana to a first- time user. The younger and less experienced the child is, the easier it is to talk him into taking a hard drug.

“He may not know what he is being offered and what consequences this can have,” says psychologist Tetiana Kostenko. “Children are drawn in by various means: drugs are hyped as something that ‘gives you a kick,’ ups your ‘coolness’ factor, and makes you more grown-up - these kinds of words are irresistible to teenagers. Drug dealers’ targets are often boys aged 11 or 12, who are eager to appear more grown-up and who have not heard about drugs.”

Often their first doses are offered free of charge. But the freebie is soon over, and that’s when attentive parents can save the child: there are many homes where a teenager cannot simply and pilfer large amounts of money from a desk drawer. If a child frequently asks for money but doesn’t bring home any purchases, this should raise the alarm. Specialists advise mothers and fathers not to think long but go straight to socio-psychological centers, where they can receive an expert consultation. They can even do this by phone.

Children with no parents to take care of them are in a worse position. Dr. Viievsky says that almost all young vagrants are substance abusers. A brand of glue called Moment, which is hardly a drug, produces a no less harmful effect than the stuff specially concocted in laboratories. “Regular glue-sniffing causes neuropathology: the drug user becomes disabled. In the clinic, we have to teach him how to walk and eat again,” says Dr. Viievsky. What happens if this person does not go to a hospital? “He will die,” the addiction specialist says. Should glue sellers put up notices on their kiosks: “We do not sell glue to minors”?

There is another poor man’s drug in Ukraine, called “screw,” which is administered intravenously (and taken internally by some “esthetes”): it is an intricate concoction made of ephedrine and many household ingredients, including permanganate, which quickly destroys the body-within a month, if you shoot up regularly, Dr. Viievsky says.

According to the doctor, the only place in Ukraine where you can receive free treatment for drug addiction is Kyiv. Substance abuse treatment is one of the most expensive kinds of medical care. Since there is no free treatment, one of today’s most pressing problems is to pass a law.

A bill entitled “On Alcohol and Narcotics” has already been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.

Helping drug abusers kick their addiction must go hand in hand with a revamped prevention strategy. Plans are afoot to organize special classes on drugs and drug addicts in schools, starting with the first grade, talks by former abusers, and visits to hospitalized addicts. This might appear to be nothing but shock therapy to some, but can anything be more shocking than the picture accompanying this article?

Posters that say “Mom, why am I a freak?” and “Mum, why did I die?” will soon disappear from the streets of Ukrainian cities because current and former drug abusers and their families object to them. “I have a patient, a former substance abuser, who had a stillborn child,” Viievsky says. “Can you imagine her seeing this ad every day from her window? Drug abusers’ children are usually the same as children of non-abusers.”

Artem Bilenko, chairman of the Outdoor Advertising Association, has apologized three times to everyone who was offended by his ads and promised that next time the association produces social advertising, it will turn to experts for advice. He said the posters would be taken down in 10 days or so. Bilenko says that Europe uses this kind of tough and bloody social advertising. The idea is that the end justifies the means, and preventing the unwary from falling victim to this evil is more important than sparing the feelings of those who have already made that decision. Otherwise, the only remaining public ad that doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings will be: “I can’t help loving you, my Kyiv.”