31% of the new users that the Drug Dependency Care Unit of the Cabildo de Lanzarote had in 2018 were minors and 9% were between 11 and 15 years old, according to the Report of the Drug Dependency Network prepared by the Social Welfare area of the institution.
According to the same, the Drug Dependency Care Unit of Lanzarote received a total of 857 treatment requests last year and 268 new users, of which 83 were minors. In addition, another 114 minors were treated, who were restarts of patients already registered, that is, it was not the first time they attended.
Of the 268 users who accessed the Drug-Free Program of the Drug Dependency Care Unit of the Cabildo for the first time, 168 were discharged throughout the year, leaving 100 in treatment at the end of it.
24% of treatment requests, for heroin use
According to addictive substance, of the 857 treatment requests received by the Drug Dependency Care Unit, the majority, with 206 and 24%, were for heroin, while 20% were for alcohol. The same percentage of treatment requests was recorded for cannabis and heroin, 19%.
Likewise, 6% of treatment requests were for crack use, 4% for alcohol-cocaine, 2% for benzodiazepines, 1.5% for gambling, 1% for heroin-cocaine, 0.5% for cannabis-cocaine, and 0.4% for polyconsumption.
Drug use at increasingly younger ages
The Report of the Drug Dependency Network also reflects that "cannabis and alcohol continue to be the initiation drugs par excellence", since 47% and 42% respectively of the new users had started using drugs through one of them and it is pointed out that "it is observed that its consumption occurs at increasingly younger ages".
And it is that, in the case of cannabis, it is reflected that 82% of the 96 users who consumed it, had started its consumption between 11 and 15 years old, also registering a case of a person who had done it before the age of 10. Regarding alcohol, of 76 users, 40% had started consuming it between 11 and 15 years of age and 3% had done so before the age of 10.
Finally, regarding the consumption of cocaine, it is indicated that, of 43 users, 9% had started its consumption between 11 and 15 years old and 26% between 6 and 19, with no case of consumption before 10 years of age being registered in this regard.
