Dylan, a 20-year-old, remained chained in his house until this week to avoid going out on the street and getting drugs. He asked his father to immobilize him because he knew that he was not going to resist the desire to go out to consume.
He has been struggling with addiction for five years and his family says that several times they have found him on the street wandering and asking for food after having tried some substances.
A few days ago he was taken to the Bicentennial hospital for detoxification and admission to the municipal program For a Future Without Drugs.
Dylan must face the hardest: ten days of detoxification in which he may have symptoms such as body aches, diarrhea, dizziness, nausea, fever, chills, anxiety, insomnia, among others.
This is the complex path that thousands of young people must travel when they want to give up drugs due to polydrug use (use of various substances), since their addiction is aggravated and they face a harder withdrawal syndrome.
Three experts consulted tell the consequences and how young people make these mixtures to achieve more intense sensations.
Julieta Sagñay, an addiction treatment expert and leader of the For a Future Without Drugs program, assures that the panorama of substance use is getting worse and worse.
She explains that, in addition to their addiction, the patients are having mental problems, psychiatric problems, very severe disorders; and she also mentions that the withdrawal syndrome is not treated adequately most of the time.
The boys consume H with pills, they are called sleepyheads; H with cocaine, cappuccino; H with marijuana, mariachi; and a host of other substances found in drug tests, such as methamphetamine.
They are mixing drugs, this has opened the window for mental illness for someone who is vulnerable or genetically predisposed to have a mental illness. We are treating patients with many psychotic symptoms, indicates the psychiatrist who works with young people in detoxification.
Major Washington Orquera, deputy chief of Antinarcotics in Zone 8 (Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón), explains that the most common is to start with marijuana and then mix it with cocaine.
But he also mentions that many use cocaine and when the effect is wearing off, they use heroin so as not to feel the slump.
The mixture of alcohol (depressant) with cocaine (stimulant) is also very common. People who drink to stay active and not fall asleep use cocaine, but in doing so they become aggressive.
Orquera also explains that the heroin they sell in Ecuador is of very low quality, “it is the rubbish of heroin.”
Heroin (semi-synthetic drug) is the most expensive, so it is increased with other substances such as animal dewormer, chalk and other chemicals to burn the reagent (this process is called cutting).
From a block of heroin you can get 20 and having such low concentrations of the drug, a dose is needed after a few hours, at four and five hours.
Psychologist Luis Enrique Guerrero, director of the Libertadores Detoxification Center of the Ministry of Public Health, agrees with Major Orquera.
In that space, located in Los Ceibos, fifteen minors are currently rehabilitated and the professional says that precisely these mixtures have caused dependency (tolerance syndrome) to be much faster and that withdrawal in his patients is harder.
That is why he highlights that they work in a program that lasts between six and nine months with young people who are going back to school and that keep them busy all the time in therapies and recreational activities.
rare drugs
The Antinarcotics agent mentions that in Ecuador there are almost no drugs such as ecstasy, acids and methamphetamines, these substances are much stronger and more expensive than cocaine or marijuana.
“It normally comes in small amounts from Mexico because each ecstasy pill costs at least $20,” says Orquera, who also points out that methamphetamine (which is created in a laboratory) is one of the most addictive and destructive drugs.
“Meth” users lose their teeth, develop spots on their bodies, and deplete calcium from their bones
There is also the drug called crokodil (crocodile), which caused terror in Brazil a few years ago when videos of those who consumed it acting wildly went viral.
Drug traffickers in Brazil and Russia extract codeine from anti-flu drugs, they do it with phosphorous, acetone and hydrochloric acid, creating a super cheap heroin that causes the part of the body where it is injected to dry up. They even have epileptic seizures, details the Antinarcotics agent.
Where to go?
The For a Future Without Drugs program attends free of charge in the following places: Mobile Clinic No. 30, Bicentennial municipal hospital, Fertisa municipal dispensary, Zumar day hospital and Municipal Women’s Addiction Detoxification Center (Cetad).
The MSP has four rehabilitation centers in Zone 8, but to be referred they must request a psychological consultation at a health center and there the professional decides if the patient should be referred. Also, if the consumer does not go voluntarily, he is not admitted. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
