The amount of drugs in schools is unknown: even fifth graders seek help

“This year alone, 75 minors are suspected of having committed a criminal act related to drugs and their possession. Last year there were 150,” the Minister of the Interior said on Tuesday Agne Bilotaitė.

The problem has been talked about for some time, and so has prevention, but does it work?

“Unfortunately, the criminal world involves minors. And we see certain schemes in which minors are recruited Telegram channels to closed groups, get certain roles”, said the Commissioner General of Police Renat Požela.

Teenagers themselves become so-called dealerswhen they themselves provide drugs to their peers.

“If one day your child begins to dispose of certain amounts of money, which was not the case before, then apparently the parents should raise certain questions,” emphasized Police Commissioner General R. Požėla.

“Sometimes we come across parents when, after raising certain suspicions that a student is using electronic cigarettes, they say that they are fools and that will be the end of it,” Andrius Tavoras, director of the Đžuolyna secondary school, told LNK news.

The director of this pro-gymnasium says that it is necessary to make as much effort as possible to reduce the availability of fakes.

“There are video cameras installed in the high school, so we have a lot of control over the entire area, so that no strangers enter or bring in narcotics,” said A. Tavoras.

However, the black trade takes place on the Internet, on the streets, at post machines. What is the real situation and how many school-aged citizens use or have tried drugs, even the General Commissioner of Police R. Požela cannot answer.

“It would be difficult to speculate about what we don’t know. But the fact is that the prevalence among children is really high,” he emphasized.

Last year, the Public Health Office clarified the situation in Vilnius. They conducted an anonymous survey of sixteen-year-olds.

“The study, which was conducted in 2022, showed that 17 percent of all schoolchildren have tried cannabis – at least once in their life,” he said.Vilnius is healthiercoordinator Monika Žūkaitė.

Specialists say that they have been using the Icelandic model in Vilnius for three years to ask teenagers about other substances and what motivated them to use them.

“Synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones are obviously the most popular among young people at the moment. It is also a mixture of various psychoactive substances. They often don’t know what they are using. They buy some kind of liquid, as they call it. And the most popular method of consumption at the moment is via electronic cigarette devices,” the deputy director of the Republican Center for Addiction Diseases told LNK. Aušra Širvinskiene.

After countless reports of drug use and distribution in schools, the Ministry of the Interior (MIA) is taking new preventive measures. One of them is movies.

One of them features a monologue by music artist Gabrielias Liaudanskas – Svaros, followed by videos by basketball player Linas Kleiza and TV presenter Ugnė Siparė. These are famous people, but the question remains whether they are an authority figure for teenagers and how this will affect them.

“In the near future, the Lithuanian police will perhaps present drastic images of what happens to people who use drugs,” said R. Požėla.

Aušra Želvienė, head of the drug, tobacco and alcohol control department, told LNK news that scientific research indicates that such a measure is not effective.

“And this generation, these children, they are not afraid,” said A. Želvienė.

Police have urged the school administration to communicate with law enforcement and are sending a message to parents who fear legal liability.

“The last part of Article 259 of the Criminal Code contains the provision that if there is cooperation with law enforcement, there is a possibility to avoid responsibility,” said R. Požėla.

A pilot preventive project will also start soon. Agreements have already been made with several municipalities.

“With the city of Vilnius, the city of Alytus and the district of Klaipėda, that such a preventive project will start in October, the purpose of which is to create and check a mechanism for the prevention of drug use and distribution in schools”, – the Minister of Internal Affairs A. Bilotaitė named the municipalities.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs will provide more information about the model when the specific schools become known.

Security recommendations were also issued on Tuesday.

“We talk, we take any measures. Like checking student belongings. Has any of these actions benefited you? No. Because the students are really clever, they hide what they want to hide and sometimes they are even more clever than those examiners. And then they laugh at the inspectors. So, the benefit is zero,” said A. Želvienė, head of the Department of Narcotics, Tobacco and Alcohol Control.

The department says it made similar recommendations to schools last year.

See the full LNK news report here:

A. Širvinskienė, deputy director of the Republican Center for Addiction Diseases, told LNK Midday News that more young people applied to the center in the second quarter of this year.

“If we are talking about minors, then we are definitely observing that rising trend. But it may also be because this problem has become more relevant. It may also be due to the fact that we have slightly expanded the services and improved their quality, as well as the environment for children’s treatment. This could also contribute to the popularity of such services”, said A. Širvinskienė.

She said that even eleven-year-olds seek help for drug use.

“The average applicant is 14-15-16 years old, which is the age we usually get when applying. There’s no need to be afraid to ask for help,” urged A. Širvinskienė. She also added that help is provided not only to children, but also to parents.

The deputy director of the Republican Center for Addiction Diseases told LNK that all kinds of children seek help.

“There are also those who come from very unfavorable conditions. Both their social situation, psychological condition, and life history are really very sad. There are traumas, crises, abuses.

But there are also such children who live in relatively favorable conditions. There is such a thing as curiosity, fashion, the desire to try. Adolescence is characterized by a desire to experiment.

Recently, we hear that young people really want to keep up with those who create the impression of a very communicative, successful person in the social space and think that they can try to achieve something similar with psychoactive substances”, – A. Širvinskienė told different stories.

Watch the entire LNK interview with A. Širvinskiene here: