ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN FOR CARNIVAL

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Thursday February 11 2010

A NEW government campaign will warn Santa Cruz carnival-goers of the dangers of drug abuse, it was announced on Thursday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

The Canarian Health and Welfare Foundation, in collaboration with with the General Directorate of Drug-Dependency, has launched a campaign to to prevent narcotics use over carnival week – when the supply of drugs in the capital increases.

Under the slogan “The carnival does not disguise reality – it always ends badly with drugs”, the campaign is especially targeted at young people.

During last year's carnival celebrations the capital's hospitals treated 386 people – 44 of them children – suffering from alcohol and narcotics poisoning.

Tenerife Cabildo health minister and foundation president Antonio Alarcó stressed the importance of such initiatives, warning that experimenting with drugs can lead to very harmful addiction from which it is difficult to escape.

He said: "They start experimenting and gradually, without noticing it, the desire to consume becomes more frequent.

“At the same time, the body gets used to the substance, so you need to increase the amount to get the same effect as the first time.

“In this way the drug becomes essential, and if the person does not take it they suffer discomfort, anxiety and irritability.”

On Monday the opposition Socialist Party (PSOE) Canarian parliamentary group criticised the government for failing to sufficiently stave off cuts to the archipelago's network of drug-dependency clinics.

PSOE health spokeswoman Lola Padrón described the ruling Canarian Coalition – Popular Party government's reduction of the 20 per cent budget cuts by between 6.5 and 8.5 per cent as merely “palliative.”

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