Pubdate: Sun, 09 May 1999 Source: Warsaw Voice (Poland) Contact: http://www.warsawvoice.com.pl/ Author: Agnieszka Pikulska 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. MAP posted by: Doc-Hawk