He investigated how dizzying Lithuanian teenagers are: hundreds of them end up in hospitals



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Local youth were asked how youth in Vilkaviškis get intoxicated.

“It’s alcohol, drugs, THC vapor, e-cigarette liquid. Another “grass”, say Vilkaviškis’s ninth-graders, who, of course, do not show faces, but openly tell what they are intoxicated.

And lists below:

“It just came to our knowledge then. In the case of lighters, where to refill.”

“Alcohol is the key. It is not a great drug. There are “herbs”.

“Electronic cigarettes.”

(4 photos)

PHOTO GALLERY. Traditional teens are being replaced by synthetic drugs, sedatives, and electronic smoke.

It is electronic cigarettes that replace traditional cigarettes. The latest ESPAD, a study on the use of alcohol and other psychoactive substances in European schools, showed that since 2003, the number of smokers among Lithuanian schoolchildren aged 15 to 16 has decreased at least once in their life by almost a third, 80%. up to 54 percent.

But over the past four years, the number of teens who have smoked e-cigarettes at least once has risen 46 percent. up to 65 percent The director of the ESPAD study in Lithuania says adolescents are often tempted by a supposedly “healthier” alternative.

“It is full of so-called fake news. If you want to stop smoking cigarettes, smoke e-cigarettes. This is completely false here. Or a healthy alternative to regular cigarettes. There is no healthy alternative here,” says Liudmila Rupšienė, director of the investigation.

However, teenagers themselves make no secret that e-cigarettes are more intoxicating as they can be filled with liquid cannabis products – the liquid from the “herb” extract, which seems to break apart when e-cigarettes evaporate.

The study, which involved adolescents aged 15 to 16 in 35 European countries, revealed an improving trend: currently, the rates of alcohol consumption among Lithuanian adolescents are the lowest in the last 16 years. About one in three Lithuanian teenagers has consumed alcohol at least once in the last month, almost every second in Europe.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Control says that the stricter procedures for buying alcohol have worked.

“Given that Denmark has a prevalence of 74 percent (you probably know that alcohol can be bought in Denmark from the age of 16), I think that the restrictions introduced when alcohol is now available from the age of 20 have given that positive result, “says Lina Jurgelaitienė, department spokeswoman. .

However, the majority of minors intoxicated by alcohol are admitted to hospitals. This year, 350 children were found in the Children’s Emergency Admission Department of the Vilnius City Clinical Hospital, 35 of them were intoxicated with drugs and 170 with alcohol.

Practically from the age of 11. up to 18 years If we look at the alcohol concentration in those per thousand, when we find it, it varies a lot, from 1-1.5 even up to 3 per thousand. And it comes with inhibition: tired, with poor coordination or in a coma, completely unconscious. There are some of them, ”said Irena Babenskien physician, pediatric intensive care physician.

But today, doctors are in a hurry to rescue the eleven-year-old boy.

“Having eaten about 20, more than 20 sedative tablets. They arrived in difficult conditions, although not in a coma, ”says I. Babenskienė.

The representatives of the ESPAD study are not hiding: the abuse of prescription drugs is a growing problem for Lithuanian adolescents.

“If the average of ESPAD countries is 6.6% who have taken sleeping or sedatives at least once in their life without a doctor’s appointment, then in Lithuania this indicator is around 20%. And this is especially true for girls. Girls mentioned this fact three times more than boys, “says L. Rupšienė.

“If it is the case that the drugs are found at home, taken by parents and perhaps grandparents, then the problems must be solved mainly by adults. And if it turns out that it is acquired in illegal places, we know that there are cases of this type in the same market, then the solution would probably be to tighten the control of those places with the State Drug Control Service together with the police and avoid the sale of such psychoactive substances ”, says the Minister of Health, Aurelijus Veryga.

And new psychoactive substances are far more dangerous than simple sedatives, which about 5 percent of 15-16 year olds admitted to trying in Lithuania.

“The new psychoactive substances are substances that mimic the effects of those classic drugs. Suppose, like synthetic cannabis, synthetic cathinones, which are supposed to replicate the effects of cocaine. These are substances here that are very unpredictable, their effects on the body can cause enormous and irreversible damage and they certainly pose a great threat. Synthetic opioids include carfentanil, which is 1,000 times stronger than heroin, ”said L. Jurgelaitienė.

Young Lithuanians and traditional illegal drugs are used. The most popular “herbs” are LSD, ecstasy, and cocaine. 2 out of 10 Lithuanian students have tried them at least once or twice in their life. However, this poisoning is much more common in Latvia, Italy and the Czech Republic than in Lithuania.



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