SCOURGE OF OUR SOCIETY

THE most worrying part – and there are many – of the special report in today’s newspaper about the scourge of drug addiction and increasing usage of fantasy aka GHB aka “coma in a bottle” is the number of kids aged 10 to 19 being treated.

What is well known is youth, particularly those in their mid-teens and even late teens, are still growing and developing both physically and mentally.

Any exposure to mind-altering substances whether illicit drugs or the legal drug that is alcohol at a young age can have lasting impacts on our fragile next generation.

The statistics paint a grim picture. Of more than 5000 clinical episodes for drug treatments, almost a quarter – that’s well over a 1000 – for the 2018-19 financial year were aged 10 to 19.

Widening that age bracket, and no doubt setting a great example, are those under 30 who made up more than half of people receiving treatment for their own drug use.

Addiction does not just lead to health issues for the user and connect them to a criminal element they may not have otherwise been exposed to but it also leads to crime borne out of desperation to deal with the fall out or continue feeding the addiction.

There are no easy solutions.

And as is pointed out, anyone is susceptible.

But education is key.

Criminal lawyer Michael Gatenby notes many clients who come his way via being bombed out of their brains on fantasy are often shocked at video footage shown to them of their afflicted state.

It is cheap, relatively, and wrongly perceived as safe – but it should not be, having been the cause of fatal overdoses as well as a key ingredient of sexual assaults and date rapes.

Youth need to know they are playing with fire and compromising their futures as well as their own physical development.