Fifteen-year-old cocaine addicts : the alarm is raised in Sassari, where two thousand people are assisted by SerD, the addiction service managed by the ASL.
«They start at 12/13 years of age - reports Paolo Milia , psychiatrist, director of the SerD and of the Department of Mental Health and Addictions of the Company - and the gateways are cannabis, nicotine and alcohol» .
Drug use affects very young people who, unfortunately, ignore the problem until, later, it manifests itself with symptoms of a mental illness, perhaps facilitated by a genetic predisposition . These people then become patients in the psychiatric ward, where, nationally, 37% of those admitted to hospital through the emergency room end up.
An emergency, like that, Milia remarks, "of the dramatic increase in crack use." We're talking about dissolved and inhaled crystals that, from the lungs, immediately reach the brain. Preparing the chemical compound isn't a problem for teenagers: "They follow tutorials and help each other."
How do you know if kids are falling into addiction? You need to notice the symptoms, from school distress to mood swings to behavioral changes. And look your kids in the eye. "It may sound funny, but it's clear that if a child has dilated pupils and is dysphoric, this means there's a problem."
When calculating the substances in circulation, taken by a population with an average age of 40, it's not crack that tops the list, but cannabis, followed by cocaine . "Heroin use, on the other hand," says Milia, "remains constant, aided by the low price of the doses." €15-20 a sachet, which allows for intravenous injections several times a day and a toxic relationship that continues over time. "We have long-standing 'clients' over 60," says Milia. And the man who lost his life to an overdose in recent months was approaching that age.
A new phenomenon is the large number of non-EU citizens, with an average age of 30 and mostly African, who present at the Local Health Authority's clinics . "They are people with multiple traumas who carry problems associated with substance addiction." Often victims of abuse and uprooted from their home countries , they present a challenge for the agency's staff, including communication skills. This is another challenge for the Local Health Authority's addiction service, which, the psychiatrist notes, "despite all the difficulties associated with the well-known, and common, public health system, staff shortages and often logistical challenges, maintains a very low level of care, with no waiting lists and direct, privacy-protected access."
In combating drug addiction, the Sassari-based agency collaborates with the prefecture, police headquarters, and local police. "Our efforts to remain local and our fruitful collaboration with local institutions are gradually yielding results, as evidenced by the increase in referrals to young adults (16-24 year olds)." This increase, however, doesn't clearly explain the phenomenon: "The numbers of addiction cases are much higher."