NOT KIDS' STUFF

Schools have become for the drug dealer what the stock exchange is to the
stockbroker; simply the place where business takes place.

Teenage drug abuse doesn't hit the headlines. At the Education Ministry,
it's an issue hidden shamefully in the bottom drawer. But the truth is
brutal: in large cities, drug-free schools are very scarce, or perhaps
non-existent.

The drug mafia seeks dealers among school children, youths and addicts.
Young people have more influence on their friends, are a cheap source of
labor and can be threatened more easily than adults. "Many times parents
come to us with beaten-up children," says Jagoda Wladon, therapist and
deputy president of the Monar association, which provides assistance to
people with drug-related problems. "Often the children have broken arms.
Some were warned they would be driven into a forest and beaten up. These
were students who entered drug dealing. We had to take them away from the
city and hide them in our centers immediately."

To begin with, dealers do not suggest teenagers join the trade. They give
them different drugs to try for free, preferably heroin, as it gets them
addicted fast. Only when they are addicted do they have to pay for a dose.
The dealer then proposes they deal drugs to earn the money. A heroin dose
costs zl.50-80, and after a few months, the addict needs about three a day.
It is not easy to get that much money, especially for teenagers. First of
all valuable things start to disappear from home, and later they can get
into serious crime.

Police and medical statistics show that by 1995, about 5 percent of young
people had experimented with drugs; over the past three years that number
has risen to 40 percent. Still, it is difficult to estimate the number of
addicts, as their number is always increasing. Young people have access to
all kinds of drugs, including so-called "brown sugar," a smokable form of
heroin that can cause addiction after only a few doses.

The average age of drug addicts is dropping. Monar youth centers now admit
children between 8 and 15. "I have worked in Monar for 15 years, and at the
beginning, the average age of the addicts was 26-27," says Wladon. "Now it's
down to 17-20. Once I was able to say why young people used drugs. It was a
certain group who mostly belonged to different youth subcultures. Now access
to drugs is much easier and each young person is inclined to seek their own
way, to experiment, to show the world they're grown up." Children who don't
feel accepted at home are especially prone to experimenting with drugs.
Often drug use is a way of gaining acceptance among peers.

"Parents should be wary, but they mustn't fall into hysteria. They should
love their children first of all," says Wladon. "Sometimes you have to make
the choice between `to be' or `to have'-to be a family, or to have a high
living standard. You have to focus on getting to know your children. More
and more often we see parents who realize something bad is happening to
their children only after two or three years-because they blamed growing up
for their strange behavior and changes in personality. If a parent has a
close relationship with their child, they will notice immediately when the
child has contact with drugs."

Until recently, the tendency was for young people from broken or otherwise
dysfunctional homes to fall victim to drugs. Today however, children from
all kinds of families become addicts. "The opponent has simply grown
stronger," says Wladon. "The child is very susceptible to external
influences, and may start taking drugs even by accident. There is much
pressure from peers: if you don't take, you're a loser."

Young people get information about drugs from other sources, too. Recently a
professor admitted in Gazeta Wyborcza daily that he had studied after taking
ephedrine, and that didn't prevent him from becoming a professor, but on the
contrary, even helped. "A final-year primary school student quoted that
statement in my lesson, arguing some drugs are not harmful. No comment is
necessary here," says Ewa Korpetta, a psychologist from Warsaw's Dzielna
Street drug addiction clinic.

"Marijuana costs about zl.30 [a gram], a gram of hash is zl.35, amphetamines
cost zl.50, LSD zl.30 and heroin zl.80," says Pawel Kucharski, 17, a student
from Warsaw's Voluntary Work School. "I don't use them, but I'm offered
drugs often. In my school, there are a few dealers. It's not difficult to
recognize them."

School principals do not like to talk about the drug problem. They usually
admit the problem does exist, but not in their schools. Only sometimes they
mention a single case. "Three years ago we realized one of our students was
using drugs. We informed the parents immediately. He's no longer our
student," says a principal of one of Warsaw's Mokotow district schools who
wished to remain anonymous.

In a school with 200 students in Wola district, the principal agreed to
speak sincerely, though he also requested anonymity. "We have introduced
student identification badges and banned the use of mobile phones at school,
which has reduced but not liquidated the problem of drug abuse among
students," he says. The school's psychologist knows at least 50 students who
are using illegal substances. "A few students, and not only the weakest
ones, have already been admitted to detoxification centers," says the
principal. "However, I'm unable to spot drug dealers in our school. I just
know they're there."

The number of addicts keeps increasing-and the amount of free treatment
available is falling. The state budget has less and less money to combat the
problem. "With such limited financial resources, it's hard to understand the
reason behind the establishment of so-called Competition Centers which are
supposed to certify, verify and recommend the treatment program at the
expense of the centers treating drug addicts which are of real assistance to
them," says Wladon. "Our rehabilitation system is underfinanced. There is a
lack of treatment facilities, so designating money for bureaucracy is
scandalous. Who are those centers going to verify, if we don't have the
money to pay the therapists and admit at least half of the applicants for
stay-in treatment?" she asks.

A therapist earns zl.500-700 a month for working at a rehabilitation center,
so many of Monar's specialists find jobs elsewhere. The addicts have to wait
two to six months to get admitted to a center. For a young person, and
especially a child, anything can happen during that time-deeper addiction,
infectious disease, even death.

The Office for Drug Problems has announced that this year's budget will be
zl.1.5 million, or 30 percent, less than last year. "We will have to close
many centers," says Wladon. "Last year was already hard. The state budget
would pay for 20 people, and we admitted 40. A minimum of zl.40 a day is
required for one patient. We could spend only zl.19-20. Now, it will be even
more difficult." Every day Monar's headquarters receives phone calls from
the managers of detoxification centers all over Poland. Almost all face the
same problem: financial problems and rising debt.

"Soon the only way to finance our activities will be to count on the support
of sponsors-and there have been few so far," says Wladon. "Drug addicts are
always at the end of the list for the needy. It's not a nice issue to be
subsidized. It's much easier to get aid for hospital patients and children.
But drug abuse is still perceived as a matter of free-and wrong-choice, not
as an illness. If we don't find sponsors, I don't dare think of what will
happen to our patients."

The clinic at Dzielna Street provided assistance to 1,300 patients aged over
18 in 1997. Last year, that figure had increased by more than 500. Since the
beginning of 1999 the clinic has been visited by 3,000 people.

Most young people start using drugs between the ages 13-15. Later, when
they're adults, they decide to get treatment. "In primary and high school
they usually use hash, marijuana, or amphetamines," says the Dzielna
clinic's Korpetta. "When they come to see us, they're already dependent on
heroin. They want treatment because they have realized their own tragedy.
They're afraid of death and of committing a crime."

However, the clinic cannot treat everyone. The law on drug abuse prevention
guarantees drug abusers the right to free treatment. But still, health
funding is only for insured patients. Who should pay for those without
insurance?

"These costs should in theory be covered by local governments," says
Korpetta. "But there are no executive regulations. It's a total mess. So
some treatment institutions are facing bankruptcy and can't admit patients.
People want to get treatment, but there's no one to help them."

Despite such problems neither the Dzielna Street clinic nor Monar are giving
up. Monar is opening a new outpatient clinic in Warsaw at 57 Hoza St. The
existing one at 17 Powstancow Wielkopolskich St., which has limited support
from the state budget, was unable to assist everybody seeking help. "We are
aware what danger young people are facing," says Wladon. "We can't make them
wait. That's why we have opened this clinic and we see all patients free of
charge. There are four volunteer therapists working there, me included. But
I don't know for how long our enthusiasm will last. But before it runs out
we will probably be thrown out for unpaid rent and phone bills. The system
worked out by Monar over 20 years may be lost, leaving many young people on
the edge of an abyss, and often facing an early, unavoidable death."

TRACKING DOWN DRUGS AMONG KIDS

The law on proceedings in juvenile court cases says children under 13 taking
drugs are not liable for court punishment, nor are they treated as
perpetrators of crime, such as drug trafficking.

"Such cases are considered to be examples of demoralization," says Capt.
Malgorzata Choros of the National Police Headquarters' Prevention
Department. "Kids caught taking or trading drugs can only face a Family
Court." Yet these courts take little interest in the issue; no court yet has
started a case against a juvenile taking drugs. "The law on prevention of
drug abuse and treatment of juvenile criminals of Oct. 26, 1982 simply does
not mention the phenomenon of drug-taking among kids," Choros says.

When discovering a juvenile drug addict under 13, police officers have to
issue a custody application to the court. And according to the law, it is
the duty of every citizen to do so. In 1998, courts recorded 7,000 such
applications.

Every police unit has special teams dealing with juveniles, consisting of
three officers keeping continual watch over young people who take drugs.
Their members' task is to issue custody applications to a family court and
conduct prevention and warning talks with the child's parents.

The Prevention Department of the National Police Headquarters has been
running the Safe City program for six years. One of its elements is the Safe
School project. "We have undertaken a broad educational campaign addressed
to teachers, young people and parents," says Choros. "We also conduct such
actions in kindergartens as well. We teach the youngest kids not to accept
anything from strangers. Older ones learn how to say no and what to do when
a dealer offers them drugs."

The Prevention Department cooperates with the Ministry of Education and the
provincial school inspectorate.

"Few schools take up cooperation with us. And we find it hard to work with
most of them," says Choros. She said the problem is that these schools fear
for their reputation. "What would happen if a prestigious high school
reported to the police that it has drug dealers operating on its premises?"
she says. "It would lose its top position in the rankings in no time. So
schools prefer us to do our prevention and educational work."

Recently, two schools in Warsaw's Ursynow Borough purchased drug testers,
which help determine whether a powder found on the premises is a drug or
some other substance. But Choros points out they cannot determine whether a
student has been taking drugs or not.

RECORD DRUG SEIZURE

Officers from the National Police Headquarters' narcotics squad have
confiscated 38 kg of hashish with a street value of $250,000 in the Vera
Hotel in Warsaw. It was the biggest seizure of drugs this year. The police
arrested three Poles and a Dutch citizen who they suspect is the organizer
of the smuggling. The men were also carrying $52,000. The operation was
carried out in cooperation with the German and Dutch police which informed
the Polish police about the criminals' preparations for a large transaction.
The drugs were designated for the Polish market.

The police say that European drug smuggling routes have altered due to the
war in Yugoslavia. Instead of the route from North Africa via the Balkans,
drugs are now transported by sea via the English Channel and the Netherlands
to Central Europe.

POLICE STATISTICS

According to the police, about 60,000 people were recorded using drugs in
1998. Of that number, 18,000 were problem users. The largest numbers of
users were among people aged 18-20 (9,055, or 15 percent) and 21-24 (14
percent). Minors accounted for about 11 percent. It is estimated that as
much as 40 percent of high-school students may have had contact with drugs.

In the Warsaw metropolitan area, 1,748 minors are suspected by the police of
using drugs. They remain under constant police control and care.

In 1998, 118 minors in the Warsaw metropolitan area committed 585 offenses
against the law on drug abuse prevention, in particular by providing, using
or encouraging drug use in order to derive economic benefits.

The possession of drugs was proven in 32 cases in 1997 and in 1,380 cases in
1998.

Over five years, the number of people selling drugs has risen substantially.
In 1994, the police arrested 298 dealers throughout Poland. In 1996, that
figure was 3,058, and in 1998, 10,762.