After drug deaths: city steps up prevention at schools
Following the drug-related death of a 15-year-old in Rathenow in Havelland, the town's new addiction prevention coordinator is campaigning for drug prevention to be given a higher priority in schools. "Prevention and addiction must be given much more space in schools," Christoph Seide, who has been working as an addiction prevention officer since August this year, told the German Press Agency. In his view, posters and information events alone do not help. Instead, prevention topics should also be anchored in school curricula.
In Rathenow in Havelland, a 15-year-old girl died in June after taking drugs. Prior to this, a 13-year-old schoolgirl had already died in the east of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern after taking a variant of ecstasy. In the summer, the police also spoke of an increase in drug offenses in the small town of Rathenow in recent years.
The 37-year-old social education worker Seide believes that drug checking - i.e. a free analysis of the ingredients in drugs - makes sense in principle. "If young people could use this without sanctions, it would be an important tool. We need to think in this direction." Free drug tests have been available in Berlin for several months, and demand has exceeded the capacity of the pilot project.
Incidents involving the chemical drug "Blue Punisher" caused great concern in the summer. The pills had attracted attention due to their apparently very high and dangerous concentration.
The introduction of drug checking, which involves analyzing the ingredients in drugs without sanctions, could be a valuable tool in preventing drug-related harm, according to Christoph Seide. Implementing drug education more comprehensively into school curriculums, beyond just posters and information events, is crucial for effective addiction prevention, as Seide suggests.
Source: www.dpa.com
