Parties with drugs and sex. Unlimited screens. Anxiety measured in 'likes'. The new addictions gain strength among the classic ones. 8% of the cases attended by the Madrid City Council, through its network of Drug Addiction Care Centers (CAD), correspond to gambling, the use of psychoactive drugs and various growing phenomena: the abuse of video games and networks social and 'chemsex', sex parties surrounded by drugs that increased with the pandemic. The usual dependencies, however, still rule: 35% of the attentions are due to alcohol, 22.5% to opiates, 21% to cocaine and 13.5% to cannabis.
The addictive balance of the capital was settled last year with around 9,200 people in treatment. More than a thousand families and more than 600 patients found work.
Last year, the Addictions Institute, dependent on Madrid Salud, assisted more than 2,100 adolescents and young people and more than 1,700 families in its Family Guidance Service and intervened in almost 300 educational centers, reaching a total of 23,200 students and 1,400 teachers. These are the data shared this Friday by the delegate of the Security and Emergencies Area and municipal spokesperson, Inmaculada Sanz, during the presentation of the council's new addictions plan for the next four years.
"Classic drugs tend to decrease in their impact on Madrid society and these types of issues related to behavioral addictions, with social networks, with gambling addictions, 'chemsex'" are advancing, "said Sanz, who specified that the objective is that these new addictions "do not spread, especially among young people, who are the most vulnerable in this area." The 2022-2026 municipal strategy is based on seven lines (and 22 general objectives): prevention, comprehensive care for young people and adolescents, reduction of risks and damage from addictions, comprehensive treatment through CAD, prevention of gambling addiction and video games, coordination and networking and supervision and improvement of the plan.
For 30 years, Madrid Salud, through its Institute of Addictions, has tackled this type of dependency. “We are going to continue to fight against all kinds of addictions because it makes life difficult for people, for our young people, and we have to raise awareness every day to say that drugs are not a game, that addictions are not a game,” Sanz has stated. Neither are the new ones.
The city council has already launched a campaign on the web and social networks to prevent the abusive use of this type of platform, screens and video games, with the hashtag
