Every fifth school-age child has tried drugs in Hungary

Budapest, May 6 (MTI) – The number of HIV infections has been steadily growing in Hungary in the past decade and every fifth school-age child has tried drugs, the Central Statistical Office said in the survey Magyarország 2015.

Efforts to raise AIDS awareness in Hungary are wanting and there are hardly any prevention or screening programmes that could improve the chances of early diagnoses and successful treatment. Fears of infection have eased due to a lack of awareness, the KSH said. The significant increase in new AIDS infections in the past five years result from the much higher number of undiagnosed cases than the figure reported in statistics, the survey added.

According to the KSH, every tenth adult and every fifth school age child or young person has used drugs, mostly cannabis, ecstasy or amphetamines.

The composition of drugs and their use among school-age children have taken an unfavourable turn since 2013 and in a very short time, synthetic cannabinoids (herbal) became the second most popular psychoactive substance. Their popularity is similar to amphetamine. Since 2010, some 108 psychoactive substances have been identified, including 42 in 2014, KSH said in its National Drug Focus Point 2015 report.

School-goers most often use cannabis, medications or medications mixed with alcohol. The number of those who have tried drugs doubled between 1995 and 2003, and after a minor drop which started in 2007, a significant increase was registered from 2011. In the past there was a predominance of males taking drugs but now the gender gap is minor.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters