The increase in drug use in our country is alarming in the fields of health, police and forensics. Experts warn about this, but if the authorities do not develop a special fight policy quickly, “substance use”, which has increased by 500 percent from 2019 to 2022, will completely take over the youth.
The most common problem in the country, both in the field of health and in the forensic field, is drug use and transportation.
According to President of the Cyprus Turkish Medical Association (KTTB) Özlem Gürkut ‘s statement, 12 people lost their lives due to drug use in 2022.
Gürkut also stated that this figure has increased by 500 percent compared to 2019.
While the Turkish Cypriot Medical Association announced at a press conference the previous day that the data in their hands did not include a result of an increase in sudden deaths, it stated that there was a serious increase in deaths due to drug use.
In addition, High Court President Narin Ferdi Şefik, who draws attention to the 30 percent increase in criminal cases at the opening of the judicial year, says that “the rate of reflection of drug use in the courts” has increased.
There were 314 drug cases in 2021.
According to the information provided by Şefik, drug files are in the first place in the number of cases.
On the other hand, Nicosia Police Chief (PGM) Ahmet Beşerler underlines that there is an increase in crimes such as ‘Drug Conservation and Carrying’.
Teyfide Tecel Tremeşeli, Chairman of the Prime Ministry Anti-Drug Commission, said that by obtaining the necessary information from the relevant institutions, the existing work will be accelerated.
Tremeşeli said, “We will also work on the law of forensic medicine,” and underlined that the time for the results of the analysis to reach their hands is in the range of 5-6 months and they are working to accelerate this.
Tremeşeli mentioned that a young person who had a traffic accident 15 months ago had just received the results of using ‘drugs’ and mentioned that they discussed these issues with Turkey.
Pink Mansion Psychiatric Hospital Chief Physician Prof. Dr. Mehmet Çakıcı, on the other hand, almost rebelled against this situation by saying “there are detections, there are data, but there are no measures” and made a series of urgent measures.
Mehmet Çakıcı, by emphasizing the importance of strengthening the police narcotics branch and combating international drug centers, said that the implementation of the probation law should be made more efficient, especially in secondary schools, drug prevention education programs should be implemented quickly, and treatment processes should be regulated.
Çakıcı also mentioned that there is a lack of doctors and psychologists in this regard in our country.
Stating that drug use and the age at trial have decreased considerably in the last 15 years, Çakıcı stated that the trial rate, which was 2 percent in 1999, increased to 6.9 in 2019 with a four-fold increase, while the trial rate in primary schools decreased to the age of ’11’.
Çakıcı informed that the trial rate, which was 3 percent in 2003, increased to 9 percent in 2019 in drug access for the 18-65 age group.
According to Cyprus Post, Mehmet Çakıcı stated that regular detections are worthless unless precautions and policies are developed, and noted that there is a drug pandemic all over the world.
“Everyone is under threat, the state has no prevention plan and treatment has declined. The state does not have a clear law and there are implementation problems.
The parties involved in the issue always detect and complain, but nothing is done when it comes to precautionary measures. There is a lack of social services, addicts cannot be reintegrated into society…
There is an agreement that has come to an end with Pembe Köşk, no addict with insufficient financial situation cannot receive treatment for 9 months because there is no state support.
The state should prepare a policy by working with its own experts. It is increasing not because of the coronavirus, but because of drugs.”
