Abuse of legal substances a major worry

ATTORNEY General and Minister of Home Affairs Adriel Brathwaite says greater emphasis must be placed on the abuse of legal substances and the impact it is having on the society.

 

He joined the debate in the Lower Chamber on the Health Services (Amendment) Bill where he pointed to the efforts being taken by the National Council on Substance Abuse and the challenges still being encountered particularly as it relates to the young people on the island.

 

According to Brathwaite: “So we need to place more emphasis, money and programmes into our schools, into our communities, to persuade more of our young people to move away from the abuse of illegal and legal drugs.”

 

Additionally, he said persons must be made aware of the cost of abusing these substances as it relates to loss of time in the workplace and other societal ills that emerge.

 

“There is no doubt that many of the domestic related issues that we see that they are related to the abuse of substances that the cost in terms of crime in the society. There is no doubt that much of the crime that we are seeing in particular burglaries, in fact based on the research that we have seen, at the time the individuals were either high on alcohol,cocaine or marijuana,” he revealed.

 

To this end, he said the NCSA must continue to take the message into the church, schools, community and sports groups.

 

The Home Affairs Minister conceded that at times it feels as though the battle is being lost, alluding to recent videos of two different persons taking a bottle of alcohol to the head and “straight pulling” the contents while being cheered on by their peers.

 

The Minister committed that with the assistance of the Ministry of Health and the NCSA, steps will be taken to “up the ante” in terms of the public health campaign.

 

As it relates to e-cigarettes, he noted that while many people agree that cigarettes are bad for you, they seem to treat this alternative as a fad. “We therefore need to have another crack at a public health campaign persuading our people and in particular more emphasis of our young people to the dangers of e-cigarettes. That in fact nicotine addiction is still dangerous regardless as to whether or not it is assumed through cigarette smoke or inhaling vie e-cigarettes. And the cost to us as a country in terms of NCDs continues to escalate,” he said. (JH)