Sat, Nov 21 2009

ONE THIRD OF BULGARIAN SCHOOL CHILDREN TRIED DRUGS THIS YEAR

Thu, Nov 22 2007 19:59 CET byRene Beekman 417 Views
ONE THIRD OF BULGARIAN SCHOOL CHILDREN TRIED DRUGS THIS YEAR

One third of Bulgarian school children in the 9th to 12th grade have at least once tried narcotics in the past year.

Compared to data from 2003, the number of school children who have tried some kind of drug, has increased with 6 per cent, Momchil Vasilev of the head of the National Focus Centre said.

Between 35 and 40 000 school children have tried cannabis in the past 30 days. Around 15 to 20 000 of them use on a regular basis, Vasilev said.
Compared to 2003, the percentage of cannabis users among 15 to 18 year old school children had increased from 27 to 30 per cent, while the use of heroin had doubled. Cocaine was tried by six per cent of school children. In 2003, this was only two per cent.

The use of amphetamine and Ecstasy increased significantly.

Trends showed that cannabis was mostly used by 15 to 34 years-old, estimated at between 315 and 330 000 people, 10 per cent of this group has used drugs in the past month. This group accounted for around 90 per cent of Bulgarian drug users between 15 and 60 years-old.

In Sofia, the percentage of drug users was higher than in other cities. Most popular was the use of marijuana, followed by synthetic drugs, according to the research.

Around 70 million people between 15 and 64 years-old in Europe has used cannabis, which was a historically high level of usage of the drug, Roumen Sedefov from the European Centre for monitoring of drugs and narcotics, said.

Write comment

Name:Comment:

Generate new code
Send your comment
Croatian supreme court allows marijuana for stressed-out war veteran

Escaping a jail sentence, veteran with PTSD who grew his own crop is deemed by court to have committed only a ‘meaningless act’.

Three Bulgarians arrested when Dutch police uncovered hemp farm

Close to 300 plants impounded, along with equipment, set for destruction

More in this category

EC suing Bulgaria for Sofia waste disposal failure

The European Commission is taking Bulgaria to court for delays in providing Sofia with adequate waste disposal facilities.

US ambassador-designate Warlick addresses senate confirmation hearing

James Warlick is the spouse of Mary Warlick, director of the office of Russian affairs at the US state department, who has been nominated to serve as ambassador to Serbia

Bulgaria declares flu epidemic at an end

Bulgaria’s Health Ministry announced on November 20 2009 that the flu epidemic declared two weeks earlier is at an end as rates of infection decline. The announcement coincides with reports of two deaths from A (H1N1) flu in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian prosecutors to investigate Dogan’s real estate deals

Acting on allegations by Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria leader Ivan Kostov, prosecutors and Government officials are to probe deals by which Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Ahmed Dogan acquired various properties.

Sofia prosecutors charge Bulgaria’s former defence minister Nikolai Tsonev

Prosecutors allege that a deal agreed by the former defence minister caused losses of 12.9 million leva.

© 2000-2009, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.

Web Design by RIZN

Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site. Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com. Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments. The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes, and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.