Fighting Drug Abuse

Published on Global Junior Challenge (https://gjc.it)

07/17/2009 - 08:28

The consumption of cocaine and heroin by youth is decreasing, but that of cannabis and other products is on the rise. On average, 12-14 years elapse between the initial use of substances and requests for help from social services. And the sale of drugs via the Internet is also on the rise.

31.5% of students aged 15-19 declare they have tried cannabis at least once and 2.7% smoke it daily. Males first try cannabis at age 16 (20%), while 4.7% of students aged 15-19 have tried stimulants at least once and a similar percentage have tried hallucinogens, but only 0.5% make use of them daily.

[Source: Annual Relation to Parliament on the State of Drug Abuse in Italy 2008 [1]]

Pontecorvo, a small municipality in the province of Frosinone, presents a high rate of drug abuse amongst its youth, who live amongst suburbs and urban deterioration and a complete lack of projects dedicated to this age group. This is where the experimental Taglia corto con la droga [2] (Give Drugs a Cut) Project was conceived.

Social Cooperative Finisterrae [3] chose to use Media Education tools and began to develop this methodology two years ago. The experimental project is also supported by other actors, including the Province of Frosinone [4] (Youth Policies Sector) that finances the project, the Fondazione Exodus [5] that provides scientific support and advice and the Pontecorvo [6] Middle School.

The project entails various phases: labs, meetings with experts, research activities and documentation as well as the production of short videos on the issue of drugs. Nine classes are involved in the project.

"Una mano per smettere" (A Hand to Quit) is the campaign video [7]produced by the students.

[7]

In the audio track, Project Director Pietro Noce, explains the choice of Media Education to develop “prevention activities against drug abuse, youth problems, emargination and deviance” dedicated to the children of the secondary school.

The Taglia corto con la droga [2] Project will partecipate in the Global Junior Challenge [8] in the “up to 15 years old” category.

« back [9]

Source URL: https://gjc.it/en/news/fighting-drug-abuse

Links
[1] http://www.palazzochigi.it/GovernoInforma/Dossier/relazione_droga_2008/relazione_droga_2008.pdf
[2] https://gjc.it/en/../../../../../../../node/192
[3] http://www.coopfinisterrae.it/
[4] http://www.provincia.fr.it/
[5] http://www.exodus.it/
[6] http://www.mediapontecorvo.it/
[7] http://www.coopfinisterrae.it/gallery.asp?id=195&open=video&video_id=5
[8] https://gjc.it/en/../../../../../../../..
[9] https://gjc.it/en/javascript%3Ahistory.go%28-1%29