Drug abuse. Tendencies and ways to overcome it

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The main goals of the Spanish program against drug abuse are to halt the proliferation of the most heinous drugs like heroin and cocaine, organize prophylactic measures among the young people of 16-to-18, promulgate popular knowledge about medicine and treatment of drug addicts by way of educational lectures, and advance public organizations' activities.

France:

The French national program against narco-business sponsored by the Ministry of the Interior and Public Safety focuses on curbing the illegal trade in drugs, and, in particular, the street vending of narcotic substances. The document provides for the creation of special-task police units and a national center to coordinate all police operations against drug abuse. Narco-business-suppression training courses have been introduced at police schools. Large police commissariats now have specialized branches to monitor drug abuse. These branches render practical and financial assistance to various organizations engaged in fighting against the abuse of narcotic and toxic chemical substances.

The experience of foreign anti-narcotics programs can be adapted to the requirements of the Russian Federation and help work out a feasible National Program of Comprehensive Counteraction to Narcotics

Par. 2. Organization of Medical Counteraction to Narcotics

The primary aspect of the entire anti-narcotics effort is a series of medical treatment measures. They are carried out by different medical institutions as actions against narcotics is inalienable from the activities of public health services of all levels, including the medical service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1975 the former Soviet medical authorities detached the addictions treatment service from psychiatry. Thus the treatment of drug and other addicts became a separate branch of medicine known as narcology.

The efforts of the medical institutions make up a significant part of the anti-narcotics strategy. Their goal is to bring about a decrease in the demand for drugs. This is achieved by the treatment and rehabilitation of abusers and, in the final run, is a positive factor of a general improvement in the drug abuse situation.

The measures, which the health centers, are obliged to take, can roughly be divided into two groups. Group One includes the properly medical efforts in the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts. Group Two embraces other organizational steps to keep narcotics at bay.

The international community also pays considerable attention to the treatment of drug addicts. Article 38 of the Uniform Convention on Drugs states that the signatory countries will take every possible step to prevent the misuse of narcotic substances, ensure an early identification of abusers, treat them, restore them to full working capability, re-socialize, and monitor them after the completion of treatment (Paragraph 1). The countries will train appropriate personnel (Paragraph 2), and will inform the population about the hazards of drug abuse (Paragraph 3). The medical treatment of drug addicts is also presupposed by Resolution II of the UN conference on implementing the Uniform Convention on Drugs. Reminding of the provisions of Article 38, the conference stressed that hospital treatment in a drug-free atmosphere is the most efficacious medical approach to the issue. It recommended that economically potent countries where drug abuse is a serious problem provide the opportunities for such treatment.

The Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts:

The issues of medical treatment/social rehabilitation of addicts and other relevant measures are to a greater or lesser degree incorporated in the public health programs of all nations and have found reflection in certain regional programs. As a rule, these documents emphasize perfection of the strategies and organization of drug abuse services on the assumption that drug abuse is a social disease. The other important aspects are financing and material/technical support, personnel, informing definite sectors of society on the hazardous impact of addiction, research in the field of more effective medicine.

Experts, however, warn against an overly simplified belief that containing drug addiction boils down to the availability of medicines and available hospital beds. The prophylactics of social illnesses like alcoholism, misuse of narcotics and toxic chemicals cannot be built upon the same methods as the treatment of serious infectious diseases. Alongside pharmaceutics, it requires psychological aid and education which more and more often involves the addicts' families and friends. It is naive to believe that medicines and injections alone can bring about the desired results and that the selection of individually suitable pharmaceutical preparations gives a clue to the problem of treatment. Good results are yielded by a combination of psychology and pharmacy. Therefore, the treatment for drug addiction consumes much painstaking effort of a doctor, psychologist, educator and other specialists working with a person who is likely to develop the illness or is ill already.

Реферат опубликован: 14/12/2009