Bulgarian institutions should join hands to tackle drug addiction: official

Bulgarian institutions should join hands and implement comprehensive measures to tackle drug addiction, Kalin Kamenov, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports said here on Thursday.

He made the statement while opening a workshop aimed at improving the prevention of drug use, attended by some 50 experts from national and regional institutions.

"Unfortunately, prevention activities are mainly related to advertising materials and publications, while a large part of drug addicts are representatives of ethnic and minority groups who are illiterate," Kamenov said.

To achieve a lasting effect of preventive work, Bulgarian institutions must begin to work together and implement comprehensive measures related to social inclusion, education, employment, training and retraining, Kamenov said.

Kamenov, who from 2012 to 2013 served as chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection, was convinced of this when he, along with over 30 representatives of seven institutions and NGOs, toured districts in Sofia and explored the reasons why people use drugs and what can help them stop, he said.

According to a national survey on attitudes and use of psychoactive substances in the general population in Bulgaria conducted at the end of 2012, 8.3 percent of the adult population used some of the drugs included in the survey at least once in their lifetime. The share in 2005, 2007 and 2008 was 5.2 percent, 6.4 percent and 8.6 respectively, the survey said. Endite