Cyprus-Forum.com

[Kikapu]

Is this problem really that big in the "TRNC".??

North comes to terms with growing drug problem
By Simon Bahceli

PRISON sentences and heavy fines will do nothing to stem growing drug use in the north, experts warned this week.

Their comments come in the wake of an unprecedented spate of drug arrests over the past month, many involving young, educated and socially active people.

One case in particular attracted intense media attention this week when it transpired that nine young people arrested in Nicosia for possession of around one kilo of marijuana were from what most would consider ‘good homes’.

“The current approach to the problem is archaic, didactic and based on ignorance,” prominent Turkish Cypriot pollster and sociologist Muharrem Faiz told the Sunday Mail.

He believes the authorities, and educationalists in particular, “need to understand how mainstream culture actually makes subculture appear relatively more attractive”. He described how a recent poll among university students found that the majority rejected ‘normal’ lifestyles, preferring instead alternative subculture models that included – as well as drug taking – different types of music, clothing, vocabulary and behaviour.

“What we need to do is integrate what are now considered alternative lifestyles into the norm, rather than rejecting them a being foreign or wrong,” Faiz said. Failure to do so would lead to a further spiralling of the prison population as more youngsters fell foul of the law, he added.

Faiz said 37 per cent of prisoners in the central prison in north Nicosia were there because of drug offences, and that this was a trend “set to rise”.

Psychologist Dr Mehmet Cakici also told the Mail that current approaches for dealing with drug abuse had little or no effect, and that most youngsters turning to drugs were doing so because they were “completely ignorant” of their effects. He blamed the authorities for being “in denial” over the problem.

He also blamed the police, saying they only went after the users, rather than organised operators who supply the market.

“Turkey and north Cyprus are on the main drugs route going from east to west, which makes our youth highly vulnerable,” he said.

Faiz too identified the police’s failure to catch “even one” of the organised criminals who supply the Cypriot market with drugs, predominantly from Turkey.

But Faiz maintained that “extreme conservatism” was the main culprit.

“People do not understand the differences between one kind of drug and another.

They like to view them as being all as bad as one another,” he said.

But when asked if he believed laws prohibiting the use of the less harmful drug marijuana should be relaxed, he said: “We have researched views on this and found most people to be vehemently against legalisation.” He added, however, that such strong anti-legalisation views were at least partly the result of prevalent conservative culture that made people unwilling to be seen to condone any kind of drug use.

Dr Cakici, for his part, rejected the idea that a relaxation of marijuana laws could ease current problems, saying: “Cyprus is not like other countries where police had no choice but to relax the laws. I believe that if there was a relaxation here, drug use would increase.”



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007

[paliometoxo]

yes then the drugs come into the south from north because they are more cheaper from trnc

[The Microphone]

So there are NO Cypriots involved in selling/importing/distributing/using drugs here then? To blame the TRNC is just mind-boggling. Remove your head from the sand and blame your OWN suppliers and dealers who sell the stuff to YOUR kids. Where the drugs come from is irrelevant. If it wasnt the North it'd be somewhere else!

[raymanuva]

there is enuf drug selling/producing scum on both sides...

[paliometoxo]

im not blaming the TUrkish Republic Of Northern Invaded Cyprus there would of been drugs without the TRNC even if there where no turks in cyprus... im just saying they are cheaper there

[The Microphone]

I dont buy or use them so I wouldn't know. Another case of supply/demand!

[LENA]

yes then the drugs come into the south from north because they are more cheaper from trnc

I heard that they say we have cheaper drugs in Ayia Napa

So there are NO Cypriots involved in selling/importing/distributing/using drugs here then? To blame the TRNC is just mind-boggling. Remove your head from the sand and blame your OWN suppliers and dealers who sell the stuff to YOUR kids. Where the drugs come from is irrelevant. If it wasnt the North it'd be somewhere else!

How you call people from north? Turks? GC and TC have a blame...they are both icluded in the business of using them, selling them, importing them... Raymanuva is right. Is not a political issue and even if it was ...we both have part of fault.

im not blaming the TUrkish Republic Of Northern Invaded Cyprus there would of been drugs without the TRNC even if there where no turks in cyprus... im just saying they are cheaper there

Turkey invaced Cyprus... «TRNC» is just the product of that illegal occupation. How you know for sure Paliometoxo? Ayia Napa...become a shame to Cyprus because is well known to foreigners for cheap drugs.

[paliometoxo]

know what for sure?... well agia napa is club capital even on sunday the town is full like a saturday night in nicosia or friday night i wouldent be suprised but most people are english and if you speak greek most of them are suprised and most the people dont even understand greek like the people outside the clubs and so on... yes it has but cyprus is so small peopel are afraid to sell them they think you are police

[LENA]

know what for sure?... well agia napa is club capital even on sunday the town is full like a saturday night in nicosia or friday night i wouldent be suprised but most people are english and if you speak greek most of them are suprised and most the people dont even understand greek like the people outside the clubs and so on... yes it has but cyprus is so small peopel are afraid to sell them they think you are police

We are not as innocent as you think so...and for sure not that scared from police as we should be. Also police some times close her yes...thank God my best friend is not reading this !!

[paliometoxo]

your best friend is police?:) no your right no one is as innocent as we may think.