In Minsk discussed the prevention of the use of harmful substances by adolescents

The visiting meeting of the Minsk City Council Commission on Health and Social Protection under the leadership of the Chairman of the Minsk City Council of Deputies Artem Tsuran was held in the Minsk City Clinical Narcological Center, the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti agency reports.

The meeting was moderated by the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council for Health and Social Protection Valery Neden. The meeting was attended by deputies of the Minsk City Council – members of the standing commission, representatives of the Minsk Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee, the Health Committee and the Education Committee of the Minsk City Executive Committee, the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Mental Health, the Minsk Clinical Narcological Center, as well as the Synodal Department for Family, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood of the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee, since the beginning of the year, 406 minors have been identified in Minsk who violated anti-alcohol and anti-drug legislation, and 69 trade workers who sold prohibited products to teenagers. 36 places of temporary residence were also identified, where 96 teenagers and 58 adults were located.

A. Tsuran noted that the problem requires not a narrow departmental, but a broad interdepartmental approach. The issue was initiated by representatives of the internal affairs bodies. The reason is that existing legal mechanisms do not always allow for an effective response to situations involving young people and their parents where violations are not related to serious crimes.

- There is a situation when, by law, it is quite difficult to bring such a young man and his parents to justice and apply any measures in addition to public censure, Tsuran explained.

He explained that the legislation in this area is country-specific, but the deputies have leverage.

- We are developing proposals that can be discussed later in state bodies that make direct decisions. But the status of a deputy allows you to look at the problem from different sides, not only from the position of one department. This is very important, he concluded.

Head of the Department of Law Enforcement and Prevention of Public Security Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Deputy Sergey Gorokhov noted that the issue of bad habits among adolescents is acute and requires interdepartmental discussion. According to him, the key difficulty lies in the legal nuances: not all situations related to the use of harmful substances by minors fall under the current legislation. This makes it difficult for both adolescents and their parents to be held accountable.

- We have a common basis for bringing to administrative responsibility persons who violate the established rules in this area, he explained. This is the use in places not intended for this, as well as the appearance in a public place in a state that offends human dignity and morality.

However, as S. Gorokhov noted, there is a serious array of adult population registered with doctors and sent to medical and preventive institutions. And the problem, he said, goes back to adolescence.

- When collecting information about the patient, experts specify at what age the person began to use harmful substances. Often it turns out that from a teenager. There are a number of issues that need to be discussed by various state bodies, subjects of prevention, to make proposals, to first develop a concept and understand how we will act next, he said.

S. Gorokhov admitted that large-scale preventive work is already underway, but persuasion methods alone are not enough.

- There must be others besides them. Certain sanctions, boundaries that a teenager should not cross, the speaker said.

Answering a clarifying question, he confirmed that now a teenager can be prosecuted for the use of harmful substances in a public place, but if this happens, for example, in an apartment, there will be no punishment. The possibility of extending the legislation to such cases is also being discussed.

The result of the meeting of the commission was the decision to establish a working group, which will consist of representatives of various interested departments. Its task is to develop a coordinated position and concrete proposals for improving legislation and law enforcement practice, including the establishment of a complete and unconditional ban on the consumption of substances harmful to health by minors, regardless of the place, as well as on the responsibility of legal representatives and persons providing premises and such substances to adolescents.

Photo by Diana Shabala