“We were struck, disconcerted, shocked by the latest case in the news which has brought to light how serious the drug issue is in Italy. This 16-year-old boy, Thomas, who in a park named after Baden Powell, almost seems like a paradox, was found two evenings ago with his face in the grass after having been stabbed by two of his peers towards whom he had claimed a credit for drug dealing of narcotic substances.” It is not a story of degradation, because the families of the alleged murderers are families that, in the usual language, we would define as ‘respectable’, and now they are in despair like Thomas’s family. It is a story that is the result of a choice, and which is systematically repeated because for years, if not decades, in which road accidents with an unexplainable cause, murders which occur due to the total absence of inhibitory brakes, have only one common purpose which is the use of narcotic substances. This long series is the result of three elements that converge: the pandemic spread of narcotic substances, lowering of the age of first contact, and the increase in the active ingredient”. This was said by the undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, during the conference presenting the Annual Report to Parliament on the phenomenon of drug addiction in Italy 2024. Palazzo Chigi (Alexander Jakhnagiev)
