International Day against Drugs - 26 June

Last year, the Department of Internal Affairs of one of the regions of our country conducted an anonymous survey among university students. His results were shocking: a fifth of the respondents admitted that they used drugs in their lives, about the same number declared their readiness to taste this forbidden fruit on occasion, the same number of respondents expressed their tolerant attitude toward those who are subject to this fatal passion. As they say, comments are superfluous ...

Day against drugs is a step towards their eradication

In our age, the problem of combating drugs has become almost the main task facing the people of the world. It is difficult to convey the scale of this disaster, which brings an immeasurable amount of tears, pain and sorrow not only to the drug addicts themselves, but also to their family members, many of whom are irretrievably destroyed. The fight against the criminal business that flooded the black market with various narcotic drugs should become a matter not only of law enforcement bodies, but of all citizens without exception. It was within this initiative that the International Day against Drugs was established.

First attempts at coordinating efforts

The bulk of this potion, as you know, is produced in the countries of the Asian world. Therefore, one of the ways to solve the problem is strict border control, which is able to restrict their importation into the territory of other states. The logic is quite understandable: in the absence of a sales market, production itself will cease or significantly decrease. Active activities in this direction were made at the very beginning of the 20th century. In 1909, delegations from thirteen countries, including Russia, held a conference in Shanghai to develop the necessary measures. However, the First World War that broke out soon did not allow their implementation to be carried out.

Historical decision: June 26 - Day Against Drugs

Then, over a long period, the struggle of individual states with this kind of criminal business was conducted without general coordination of actions. Only in 1987 an important and constructive step was taken. The United Nations Organization at its General Assembly adopted practical solutions, one of which was the International Day against Drugs, established on 26 June. This became an expression of the will of the entire world community to join efforts to end this scourge, which annually takes tens of thousands of lives. In addition, a Master Plan for further joint action was developed and adopted.

Features of the problem at the present stage

Despite the fact that attempts to organize a confrontation with the drug business have been under way for a century, the severity of the problem has not diminished. If in former times it was mainly about opium as a smoking means, then nowadays the range of psychotropic substances has significantly expanded. There were so-called heavy drugs, injected into the body by intravenous route.

In addition, the situation is exacerbated by a significant decrease in the average age of persons subject to this dependence. There is a "rejuvenation" of drug addiction. The result of this is extremely sad: according to official statistics, in Russia within a year more than thirty thousand people die from it. In connection with these, the need for the most decisive and rapid measures becomes obvious, among which a significant place is occupied by both the World and All-Russian Day against Drugs.

An ailment that destroys a person

It is known that drug addiction is a serious illness that arises from the abuse of drugs. Everyone who is exposed to him develops an irresistible need for their regular admission, as this largely determines their psychological and physical condition.

The drug, to which the habituation has developed, becomes extremely necessary for the patient, although it leads to destabilization of the organism's activity and to complete social degradation. All this was the reason that it was necessary, along with other measures, to establish the International Day Against Drugs.

Suffering - payment for the illusion of happiness

The beginning of the tragedy is caused, as a rule, by the ability of some psychotropic drugs to create a sense of intoxication, accompanied by the illusion of comfort, both psychological and physical. Often it turns into a feeling of well-being and complete detachment from life's problems.

However, when the effect of the drug ends, the poisoned organism requires a new dose, which is accompanied by extremely negative and painful symptoms. To overcome them, the patient needs another dose. Very soon, the goal of taking drugs is not getting pleasure, as it was at the initial stage of the disease, but getting rid of suffering, which narcotics themselves call "breaking".

Harm caused by psychotropic drugs

Drug abuse is the inevitable path to degradation not only of the human body, but, above all, of his brain. It is clearly established that the 3-4-month use of the glue "Moment" makes people mentally inferior. Using cannabis, which is generally considered safe grass, such degradation can be achieved in three to four years.

Especially detrimental are the consequences for those who are addicted to heavy drugs. For example, morphine or heroin are capable of affecting the patient two or three months to such an extent that it completely loses its human appearance. In these cases, people affected by the disease, stop even taking care of themselves.

Hallucinogenic drugs

The World Drug Action Day must contribute to the fight against the spread and use of such a harmful drug as cocaine. As practice shows, the human body is able to resist it no more than three to four years. Then, as a rule, death occurs due to heart rupture. Often in people who are dependent on him, the nasal septum thinens up to complete destruction. In this case, bleeding occurs, resulting in a fatal outcome due to the impossibility of stopping it.

On the International Day Against Drug Use , activities are also being carried out to explain the dangers posed by such a hallucinogenic substance as LSD. This drug is especially dangerous because after using its patient, the ability to orient in space loses. There is an illusion of ease and ability to fly. There are many cases when drug addicts under the influence of this drug made lethal jumps for themselves from windows of houses and from various high-rise buildings. In this case, the threat to life is created literally from the first day of taking the drug.

Mental degradation is the path to death

Leading medical organizations, thanks to whose activity the World Day against Drugs was established, ascertain the fact that regardless of the type of psychotropic substances illegally consumed by patients, their life does not last for a long time. The reason is that as a result of general physical and mental degradation, such people lose the inherent instinct of self-preservation.

Statistics show that about 60% of addicts in the first two years attempt suicide. And unfortunately, not always they manage to stop. The same sources testify that suicides are most often committed by young people at the age not exceeding twenty-six years. The salvation of these lives is one of the tasks for which the Day of struggle against drugs was established.

Four steps to death

Specialists in the fight against drug addiction as a result of long-term observations came to the conclusion that the path of degradation of the patient from the first reception to imminent death can be conditionally divided into four stages. The initial step, as a rule, is the use of the drug out of curiosity - "one should try everything in life" - or as a result of the persuasions of "friends" who already have time to join this fatal passion. Very often then, remembering this day, the unfortunate people who have become addicted to the deadly potion, curse themselves for a reckless act.

The next step is getting used to the action of narcotic drugs and searching for more potent drugs. In most cases, everything starts with so-called light drugs. In this case, insidiousness lies in their very name, which lulls its seeming harmlessness. In fact, the use of these "light" drugs often causes severe and irreversible consequences.

The third step, inevitable along this path, is the acquisition of dependence on narcotic substances. It is she who causes all subsequent troubles. The day of combating illicit drug trafficking and all other actions are aimed, first of all, at protecting citizens, and first of all, young people, from this disaster. All the consequences that inevitably result from enslaving a person with psychotropic substances are well known. Among them, and breaking, and infection with HIV, and the sale of their property, and stealing someone else's.

The final stage comes when the sick person, completely degraded and has lost all moral appearance, begins to sell himself for a dose, becoming a member of a criminal business. By spreading drugs, it helps to draw other people into mortal dependence. Sometimes its victims become a very wide range of people. This stage is characterized by a complete loss of interest in life.

In most cases, the patients become isolated in themselves, breaking with their family and friends. Henceforth, their entire existence is reduced to the desire to obtain a dose by any, even criminal ways. Well, the crime inevitably follows the payment of death. Sometimes an organism poisoned by poisons refuses to serve, and a drug addict, often involved in the criminal world, becomes a victim of criminal businessmen.

An important step in the international community

That's to resist the trouble and protect from the danger of youth, and set the Day against Drug Use. Kofi Annan, who was Secretary General of the United Nations in 1987, made a speech at the signing of the document, in which he stressed the importance of not only combating this problem, but also eliminating the causes that gave birth to it.

Particular attention was paid to the inadmissibility of contemptuous and disparaging treatment of all who fell victim to the disease, and attempts to silence the problem. According to the speaker, joint actions of the broadest layers of the public are needed, aimed at helping people in drug dependence. Kofi Annan expressed the hope that the Day against Drugs would play an important role in achieving the goal.