IGNORANCE IS KILLING PEOPLE

FOUR heroin-related deaths were reported in the last few days which, for
Cyprus, are unprecedented and indicate that use of the drug is spreading
fast. Press reports have attributed the deaths to the supply of impure
heroin, but they may as easily have been the result of overdose. These are
not the only dangers facing users. They also run the risk of contracting
viruses, such as HIV and hepatitis B, from using contaminated hypodermic
needles.

The drug situation has become extremely worrying. Even more worrying seems
to be the absence of a government strategy for dealing with it. Justice and
Public Order Minister Doros Theodorou, conceded on Monday that "the state
has greatly delayed in looking at the issue of drugs". He added that heavy
emphasis should be put on prevention and treatment of addicts rather than on
punishment. Theodorou's candour was seized by opposition party DISY which
accused the police war on drugs of being "inadequate and ineffective".

Unfortunately, the only thing the political parties seem interested in is
politically exploiting the drug issue. When DISY was part of the government,
the then opposition parties (now part of the government) were accusing it of
failing to tackle the drug problem. President Papadopoulos had included a
series of measures for tackling drug use in his election manifesto, but only
some of these have been implemented and with minimal success. In fact
measures, though well-intentioned, confirmed the suspicion that the
politicians are in a quandary over how to tackle the issue.

Despite the many declarations by successive governments, there has never
been a proper strategy for discouraging drug use. Some more rehabilitation
and detox centres have been set up, but prevention campaigns have been
spectacularly unimaginative and ineffective. No research has ever been done
to establish who uses drugs, what drugs they use, why they use them and when
and where they are used. Without understanding what makes youths use drugs
(and it is not just youths from broken families, as popular wisdom may
claim), it is impossible to mount an effective, multi-dimensional anti-drug
campaign.

We have for years been arguing that it was a big mistake for the authorities
to lump 'soft' and 'hard' drugs together in their alarmist campaigns. By
implying that cannabis killed, they were undermining the credibility of
their message, which nobody took seriously. The police committed the same
mistake. They were wasting resources arresting and prosecuting youths for
possession of a few grams of cannabis, while the big traffickers were freely
supplying heroin.

After the recent deaths, it should be obvious that the biggest threat posed
to our society is by heroin and this is what the authorities must focus
their efforts on. There must be imaginative advertising campaigns about the
effects and dangers of heroin addiction, both for students and the general
public, while the police must use the right tactics for catching the heroin
traffickers. And there must be a properly worked out national strategy if
these efforts are to be successful.

We cannot afford to delay real action any longer. Lives are being lost.