News Analysis: Synthetic drugs deadly threat for young Italians

Several drug-related deaths this summer 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.

The most impressive thing, he said, is that many young people believe they can just take drugs to make a "chemical journey" at the weekend and then go back to normal life on Monday.

"They do not realize that what they call 'hook' can kill them," he stressed.

"This pattern is different from the past, where some 50 percent of heroin addicts used to die very early. Today's synthetic drugs provoke serious mental diseases that however are compatible with life. These generations do not refuse society, they want to live and have fun, but end to never be able to take a degree or have a good job, as the effects of synthetic drugs are devastating," Di Petta went on saying.

The psychiatrist in his career has met many cases.

"Sometimes there is nothing to do. For their entire life, these people will suffer from self-induced mental illnesses including psychomotor agitation, hallucination, confused state, anxiety, nervousness and disorientation," he told Xinhua.

According to a study of the Institute of Clinical Phisiology (IFC) of the Italian Research Council (CNR), around 54,000 high school students, or 2.3 percent of Italians aged 15-19, last year took psychotropic substances without knowing what they were.

"The neighborhoods frequented by young people are the most attractive for drug smugglers, thus we pay particular attention to checks in those areas," Giovanni Di Sabato, a police executive in Rome, explained to Xinhua.

All kinds of police forces, from riot and investigator squads to dog units, are deployed in the fight against drugs in Italy.

"We especially act as a deterrent to discourage dealers, who are often non-European migrants, from hanging out at these neighborhoods," Di Sabato said.

"It is important to stop drugs, which always bring destruction, decay and illegality," he highlighted.

In the past few weeks, police have arrested several people on drug charges and seized narcotics earmarked for clubs and discos used by holiday makers, while checks at famous sea resorts have been strengthened.

In a recent interview with Italy's leading newspaper Corriere della Sera, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano stressed that the government has "the duty to be tough" with the drama of "Italian young generations destroying their brain and risking their life."

Authorities also called on citizens and especially families to collaborate in the fight against drugs, a problem that concerns the entire society and can only be addressed with a series of prevention initiatives, from information to the testimony of those who have survived a very serious mistake. Endit