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Program description
Complex Program on Secondary Drug Prevention and Early
Intervention has been working in Pinsk, Belarus, since
October 2003. The structures which are involved in the
Program are: prosecutor’s office, juvenile police, youth
social authorities and NGOs Kalegium and Mothers Against
Drugs.
The Program is aimed at detection teenage drug abuse and
also at intervention into young people’s drug career at
an early stage. It is also aimed at development of
democratic cooperation between state run institutions
and non-governmental organizations.
Pinsk organizers borrowed the program’s idea from their
Swedish colleagues from Uppsala city. Uppsala secondary
prevention program called RNB suggests teenage drug
abusers and their parents 3 months course of individual
meeting with different specialists instead of paying
fine.
Pinsk Complex Program suggests teenage drug abusers and
their parents an alternative: either to pay fine or to
come to 5 individual meetings with different specialists
(a social pedagogue, a policemen and NGOs activists).
At the meetings teenagers and their parents receive
information about drug abuse - dependency and
co-dependency, about Belarusian legislation and crimes
related to drugs etc. At the meetings youngsters are
encouraged to think and find answers to such questions
as: what is important for me now and what will be
important in the future, what will happen to me if I
become a drug addict, etc.
Program’s clients (figures dated October 2003 -
July 2006)
30 teenagers aged 11-17 (4 girls and 26 boys) and their
parents participated in the program
The police had detained them for:
- glue sniffing (27 teenagers)
- Marijuana smoking (1 teenager)
- usage of different kinds of drugs (2 teenagers)
1 teenager was detained for drug usage while taking part
in the program.
Positive sides and problems
• The program turned out to be effective for teenagers
who have started to experiment with drugs but have not
formed drug dependency
• The clients of the program (teenagers and their
parents) regard it is good that:
- Meetings are organized individually with each client
- Meetings are conducted by different specialists
- Teenagers come to meetings together with their parents
- Teenagers and their parents receive much information
about different aspects of drug addiction (what is drug
addiction and how it forms, how is drug usage is
connected with crimes, what law says about drugs, what
is co-dependence and what to do if a family member began
consuming drugs).
- Each client is given information set Drugbox to read
- At the meetings teenagers are organized in a form of
dialogue and teenagers are encouraged to play a leading
part in their life.
But unfortunately the following problems occur:
• Not all teenagers get to the program at the beginning
of their drug career
• In many cases parents fail to come to all meetings
Teenagers’ opinions
At the third meeting teenagers, their parents and a
social pedagogue watch video movies about drug addiction
Metro and Masquerade. Here are teenagers’ opinions about
what they have seen:
• The ones who use drugs don’t understand what they do.
They want to get pleasure but instead they sign
themselves death sentence, dig graves for themselves and
pave a road to hell.
• I am in shock – I did not think drugs are so dangerous.
I realize I can become a drug addict. So I’d better give
up my experiments.
• I realized that even the weakest drug can do me and
other people harm.
• I was scared. I felt pity for people who injected
drugs and died.
• I think drugs is a very bad thing, but people use
drugs and drugs. But it’s possible to quit if you have a
will power.
• I am against drugs.
• I understood that it’s better not to use drugs not to
become a person hated and avoided by others – like those
drug addicts in the movies. I understood that it’s
better to go for a walk, go to the movies, eat an ice
cream and enjoy life.
• Drug addicts’ life is so short – they die of over
dosage, AIDS, etc. They inject drugs in their arms, legs,
necks. I saw in the movies how their bodies look like –
scars all around, their arms and legs are decaying.
Drugs affect all organs.
• It’s very bad to consume drugs. Drug addicts don’t
think about consequences – and simply can’t stop. They
immune system gets destroyed, their blood gets infected
and they feel really bad. Their inner organs – liver,
lungs - get destroyed. They feel worse and worse day
after day. They can’t breathe, can’t move their arms and
legs.
• I think I have to quit. Drugs do harm to my health,
spoil my life. I am shocked there are so many drug
addicts in our country and thy enjoy drugs.
• Having watched movies Metro and Masquerade I saw the
life of drug addicts and what drugs do to people. I
learnt how drugs spoil life and how drug addicted people
suffer. Even a friend can offer you drugs. It’s not good
at all.
Experience share
Pinsk experience of secondary drug prevention was highly
praised in Brest province. After a series of seminars
organized in Brest and Pinsk, similar programs on
secondary drug prevention started to work in the cities
of Mikashevichi and Baranovichi.
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