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News Analysis: Synthetic drugs deadly threat for young Italians

Xinhua, August 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

This summer several drug-related deaths have hit the headlines in Italy, where an escalation of teenagers who put their lives in peril is making experts wonder how to stop "the hoot that kills people".

The most recent case was that of a 16-year-old girl who was found dead on Sunday on a beach in Sicily, southern Italy. It was quite clear from first media reports what investigators confirmed later. Ilaria Boemi was likely killed by a dose of lethal ecstasy provided by her friends.

"It is possible that Ilaria took a tablet with a wrong dosage or containing a substance which revealed as being particularly toxic for her body," said Mirna Caradonna, Head of Logistic Branch at the Central Directorate for Anti-Drug Services of Italy's Interior Ministry.

Caradonna warned of the fatal effects of synthetic drugs that are composed by a variety of very dangerous substances. The most alarming figures, she underlined, come from the online market, where a single click allows minors to buy the deadly drugs with just 5 euros (5.6 U.S. dollars).

"These substances ease socialization and entertainment in crowded places like discos, for many hours," Caradonna said.

But in fact, she stressed, teenagers are used as "test subjects" by the drug market for substances that are often unknown even by doctors who are therefore unable to save many lives.

In July, 16-year-old Lamberto Lucaccioni was killed also by ecstasy while dancing with his friends at a famous disco in Riccione, a town on Italy's Adriatic coast, that was then temporarily shutdown. Months ago another young man was found dead in a hotel after taking drugs at the same disco.

So what is happening to Italian teenagers?

"This is a bad effect of a too rapid globalization which overtakes the cultural traditions of a country and of its young generations," Gilberto Di Petta, a psychiatrist at the Pozzuoli Hospital, in southern Italy, and an advisory at the local Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, explained to Xinhua. Endit