Prevention key to drug strategy
February 15, 2012
Germany's new strategy on combating drug abuse is set to focus increased efforts on prevention and recognizing potential sources of addiction at an early stage.
"We have to take into account new patterns of consumption, like mixing different drugs together, or new forms of addiction, like addiction to the Internet but also new substances," the government's commissioner on drug policy, Mechthild Dyckmans told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday.
Germany's new national strategy is to focus on more segments of the population not usually associated with drug abuse, such as children, youth, older people and immigrants, Dyckmans said.
"Parents and doctors are to receive support in recognizing the risks at an early stage in order to prevent addiction from developing." Dyckmans added.
Each year in Germany, about 57,000 patients are weaned off the drugs they are addicted to, going through the withdrawal process under a doctor's care.
"If every doctor in Germany treated one extra patient each year, we could double this figure," Dyckmans said.
Online forms of addiction are a relatively new phenomenon, with an estimated 565,000 people in Germany affected, with most between the ages of 14 and 24. About 250,000 are addicted to the Internet or online gaming, and a further 1.4 million are thought to be at risk of developing an addiction. Due to the fact that online forms of addiction are currently not recognized as an illness, Germany's health insurance companies do not cover the costs for treatment.
The new national strategy replaces the Action Plan on Drugs and Addiction which came into force in 2003.
pfd/slk (EPD, AFP)