According to data by the Hellenic Therapy Center for Dependent Individuals (KETHEA) young Greeks today use drugs far more than the past generations did. In qualitative terms, an increasing number of young Greeks use use heavy drugs. This trend has been worrying the authorities for a while now, hence KETHEA designed and implemented a large-scale study to shed light on the phenomenon.
Sotiris Bountis, the head of KETHEA’s Exodus intervention argues, there is overwhelming data that young Greeks do far more drugs than the past generations did, while these drugs are not limited to the recreational light drugs ones such as marijuana they include heavier ones like cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin. Bountis added that, during the past few years, cocaine has been “legitimized” in the minds of young Greeks.
Bountis said that there are a number of young Greeks who traffic drugs on a consistent basis and argued that “there is a growing demand from new groups of people.”
Bountis believes that factors such as the economic crisis, younger Greeks’ general social exclusion, and the social deadlocks within the Greek society, have led a portion of young people to become drug users.
“This is essentially a social problem based on the current dead-ends that young people face,”said Bountis.
He added that the use of heavy drugs among young Greeks “is a social problem that does not affect a small group of people as it used to but affects a larger group of young people who want to mimic their ‘role models’ who have money, drugs, etc. at their core.”
Bountis believes that young Greeks’ “needs for social promotion and for improved economic status” but also their “pursuit of quick and easy money” has now led them to “believe that these needs are met by the use and trafficking of drugs.”
Bountis concluded that out that it is imperative for the Greek authorities to increase funding for programs which support young drug users and stressed that “the role of KETHEA in this great social battle needs to be protected and strengthened.”
Notably, he commented that “the initiatives of the central government and the Ministry of Health are problematic.”
The Greek government – which has been in power since 2019 and won re-election in 2023 – has been facing heavy criticism for underfunding such programs, and it remains to be seen whether the dire situation regarding young Greeks’ heavy drug use will lead to a re-prioritization of the issue.
