Survey will reveal figures on drug use in Yucatán

MÉRIDA, Yucatán, (June 12, 2021)-.- In order to know the current context of drug use in young people as well as the factors that put them at risk, the State Center for Social Crime Prevention and Citizen Participation (Cepredey), launched the Exploratory Survey in recent days of Addiction Prevention.

The director of the state agency, Joana Briceño Ascencio, highlighted in an interview that it was decided to carry out this survey because there is no specific local information and data about the problems that exist regarding the harmful use of substances among the local population.

He specified that although there is a history of statistics at the national level in the matter of addictions, such as the National Survey of Addictions (Encodat), carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), there are only data on ages of consumption and prevalence of drugs types of substances.

For this reason, Cepredey seeks to explore the consumption factors that are present and that put young people at risk, such as what young people believe and think about drugs if they have lived favorable or unfavorable situations in their personal lives, work or educational environments, what is the availability of substances, how often they use, just to name a few.

“This is very important because we are going to be able to explore a little beyond just statistical data in terms of ages and prevalences, we seek to find this relationship between the factors that could be associated with problematic substance use and those data to we would help us a lot to identify which are the main problems associated with consumption and what we have to look at in order to do a better prevention work focused on those factors found ”, he explained.

He stressed that the study is exploring different types of substances, not only those known as hard or illegal drugs but also alcohol and tobacco consumption.

He assured that they seek to identify the relationship that exists between the aforementioned factors and the fact that a person between 14 and 29 years old decides to consume a drug and remains a regular user for years (or for life).

He said that beyond the fact that substances generate a high degree of addiction at a biological and pharmacological level, those that are interpersonal and individual factors in the social context must also be considered.

The survey began on June 7 and will collect data until July 30, in two ways: the virtual survey where anyone between 14 and 29 years old living in Yucatán can enter yucatan.gob.mx/sinviolencia and data will also be collected with the Centers for Primary Attention in Addictions of the Health Services of Yucatán and with the Center for Youth Integration (CIJ).

Source: Sipse