Why children end up trying drugs – UNSPOKEN national drug use survey

The Prime Minister of Romania supports the campaign launched by the National Federation of Parents (FNaP).

A flash online survey initiated by the National Federation of Parents (FNaP) on a representative sample, to which more than 1,000 parents from urban and rural areas responded, reveals that the two main reasons why children end up using drugs are the influence of their entourage and the lack of affection in the family.

The survey was carried out between July 17-19, 2024, and represents one of the first actions initiated within the campaign to raise awareness of this phenomenon among parents and children, and entitled “Unspoken“, through which parents will be encouraged to reconnect with their children and get directly involved in the prevention of drug use among children and teenagers.

From the point of view of the structure of the respondents to the survey initiated by FNaP, 55% of the respondents have children between 14 and 18 years old, 49% of the respondents have girls, 51% have boys, 24% of the respondents are from outside Bucharest. Surprisingly, 49% of respondents indicated that they had talked to their children about drugs without being influenced by the occurrence of a particular event.

“I congratulate the initiators of this campaign for the determination to do something concrete on the prevention side at the level of parents. What worries me the most is the very cheap, synthetic and toxic drugs for children, and the biggest mistake parents make is thinking that this cannot happen to their child. I support the campaign launched by the National Federation of Parents and I want a collaboration in this sense between the state institutions and representatives of civil society to protect our children from the scourge of drugs”, said Marcel Ciolacu, Prime Minister of Romania about the Unspoken campaign.

More than 65% of respondents to the survey consider the entourage as the main factor that causes children to try drugs for the first time experimentally, while 56% of parents then indicated the lack of affection as the second most important factor that drives children to use drugs.

On the other hand, teenagers are reluctant to talk to their parents about drug use for fear of being judged (81% of respondents) or punished (74% of respondents), while 26% of respondents believe that parental carelessness contributes to this phenomenon.

When it comes to discussing other personal issues, parents’ perception is that children are less afraid of being judged (69% of responses). Almost 17% of children would rather chat with a friend.

Moreover, the barriers to communication between parents and children are the lack of time (56%) and the gap between generations (54%), which means that 38% of parents fail to have common activities with their children.

“I thank all those who have already joined us and who will join us. We need all the support to defend future generations against drug addiction. We are already talking about a critical situation, even if for us at the Federation, it has not necessarily been a surprise for years, but now is the time to act concretely to prevent and block our children’s access to drugs, by mobilizing parents from all of Romania”, declared Eugen Ilea, president of the Bucharest National Federation of Parents.

FNaP develops the Unspoken campaign with the help of a group of psychologists and psychotherapists, addiction experts, lawyers, professional communicators and public policy specialists, together with hundreds of volunteers, parents and children, determined to contribute directly to the prevention of drug use of all kinds way. To join, send a message to the e-mail address: [email protected].

The concept of the Unspoken campaign was created by the V+O Communication agency, which will also implement the communication strategy and develop the entire portfolio of information and support materials, as well as all the activities that will be organized in support of this endeavour.

The first institutional partners of FNaP in the Unspoken campaign are the Government of Romania and the National Anti-Drug Agency (ANA), and FSE Spiru Haret.