Fiorenza Sarzanini (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
Ggambling, extreme sports, high-speed driving, drug and alcohol use: there is an increasingly marked tendency among young people to get high or in any case to go beyond the limits.
The complaint comes from Parliamentary Committee on Children led by the Honourable Maria Vittoria Brambilla which in its annual report identifies those behaviors as a “culture of addiction” and dedicates an entire chapter underlining it «orientation towards the substance that gives something more».
Among the phenomena identified as most at risk is internet addiction which in some cases can cause “screen overdose”. The variables are numerous: from virtual relationships that become obsessions, to the excessive search for information on social networks up to cybersex.
Habits that increase the danger «of approaching interpersonal relationships in a surreal way as well as managing one’s emotions.”
For the item “gambling” the dossier contains the research conducted by the Higher Institute of Health on a sample of over 89 thousand students between the ages of 11 and 17, which shows that 34.7 percent of fifteen-year-olds have bet or gambled money at least once in their lives (47 .2 percent boys, 21.5 percent girls).
Young and too easy to get high
However, the real alarm comes from the Anti-Drug Department which delivers dramatic data on the use and especially abuse of substances. Compared to 2022 in 2023 it was “the growth in the consumption of psychoactive substances among young people between 15 and 19” has been confirmed.
«Almost 960 thousand young people, equal to 39 percent of the student population, report having consumed an illegal psychoactive substance at least once in their life and over 680 thousand (28 percent) in the last year».
Drugs and alcohol: worrying increase in consumption among young people in Italy (photo Getty Images).
«Cannabis remains the substance most used by young people even if more and more minors are taking hallucinogens. The involvement of minors in the production, trafficking and illicit possession of narcotic substances is increasing: the number of minors reported for drug-related crimes recorded a 10 percent increasecompared to 2022″.
A surge, and this is what is worrying, has been recorded for alcohol consumption which is “the most commonly used psychoactive substance among minors”.
The data are all too eloquent: «About 69 percent report having drunk it during 2023. The intoxication and alcoholic binge (the consumption of 5 or more drinks in a short time) concern respectively 13 percent and 25 percent of children under 18″.
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